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Scientists think they know why men are often ‘better navigators’ than women
Scientists think they know why men tend to be better navigators than women, and not because of evolution from hunter-gatherers.
Research has shown men tend to be better navigators than women, although the data isnt quite as strong as prevailing stereotypes would have you believe. This week, scientists revealed they think the differences between men’s and womens navigation skills come down to culture, not evolution. �
Why do men tend to be better navigators than women?
Its long been thought the differences in navigation skills, otherwise known as spatial ability, between genders are due to the way that humans evolved.
The theory was that during our early evolution, males needed to be better at finding their way around because they tended to hunt over large distances whereas females tended to stay closer to home.
However, a new study by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has now challenged this idea by suggesting differences in navigation are instead due to how and where we are brought up.
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The team analyzed data from 21 different animal species (including humans) to find out how good males and females were at finding their way around, and how far they traveled from their homes on average.
They found that across all 21 species, males had better navigation than females even when the females tended to be the ones traveling further from home.
These results suggest men are better navigators than women not because of an evolutionary adaptation, but because of the environment and opportunities given to men to become better navigators growing up.
For example, boys might be encouraged to play outside more than girls or gravitate towards outdoor recreation/hobbies that cover larger areas all of which teach navigational skills in key learning years.
Doctor Antoine Coutrot told New Scientist: The authors show in a very comprehensive way that sex differences in spatial ability are more likely acquired, for instance through culture. Spatial ability is much like all cognitive abilities: the more you use it, the more you have it.
A 2018 study also suggested the way in which men explore their surroundings is fundamentally different from women; males tend to look for shortcuts, whereas females tend to wander.
Gender inequality might also be to blame for navigation differences
Whilst there is only a slight advantage in navigation ability for men compared to women generally, there are major differences in places where there is more inequality between the genders.
Back in 2018, Professor Hugo Spiers told the BBC how gender inequality in education, health, jobs, and even politics can all play a part in how people develop these ‘path-finding’ skills:
So countries where there is high equality between men and women, the difference between men and women is very small on our spatial navigation test. But when there’s high inequality the difference between men and women is much bigger. And that suggests the culture people are living in has an effect on their cognitive abilities.”
As Science Magazine reports: In countries where women do not have the same opportunities as men, they may not be able to hone their navigational skills as well as women in other areas.
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Interestingly, the same study also found people from Denmark, Finland, and Norway tend to be the best navigators of all nations with one theory being that this is linked to their Viking heritage.
