You may think I have far too much time on my hands (definitely not true as we enter the “midterm” phase of the quarter), but I took some time out to enjoy a feature on the BBC, one of my favorite news sources. The feature includes six different tests that are supposed to tell you if you think more like a man than a woman. Not too surprisingly, my overall results show that I think like a woman, but a fairly systems oriented one.
My results were quite mixed. My finger length is quite female, but I did very well on some of the spatial tests. I find masculine looking men more attractive (anyone who knows my husband would say “duh” to this). I’m not too good at matching eyes to emotions, and I am definitely more interested in systems than most women. That probably explains the football/videogame thing, not to mention my interest in science and engineering.
In a less scientific mode, Blogthings offers another male/female “brain test.” On this one, I scored 47% female and 53% male–not too sure what to make of that. Maybe I’ll try their “How Redneck Are You?” test next…..
Some people are still rather upset at the idea that men and women might think differently. I’ve noticed that this is a much more comfortable concept in Great Britain than in the United States. For an outstanding review of sex differences, check out Doreen Kimura’s article for Scientific American.Then go ahead and take the tests with a grain of salt, but enjoy!
14 Comments
Owenmartin · April 25, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Not to my suprise, I scored a 50% on the Brain-Sex test. I knew that I can be more empathic than most men, which was reflected in my 16/20 correct when measuring empathy. I also got the more masculine score with the 3D shapes. I thought the finger length correlated to testosterone levels in the womb was really interesting as well. Who would have ever thought finger length had to do with testostrone? not me, that’s for sure (:
apanchal · May 3, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I scored 60% female and 40% male which is not surprising. What did surprise me was the fact that it said I wear my heart on my sleeve which is not true. The cartoon is very and I had seen this in the Intro to Psy class. I don’t think I have a problem understanding that they are differences between males and females and I don’t know why its so controversial.
Laura Freberg · May 5, 2007 at 11:00 am
When students notice a discrepancy between personality test results and what they know about themselves, I always advise them to trust their opinions. Tests are fun, but shouldn’t offer too many surprises to the self-aware college student. So if you know you don’t “wear your heart on your sleeve,” it’s best to disregard this result.
I have also found the finger length and other indicators of prenatal testosterone interesting, but it’s important to avoid a sense of “determinism.” Research suggests that men with substantial differences in finger length may be more physically violent. However, I don’t think such findings should ever be used as an “excuse” for behavior–after all, we humans do enjoy a very functional cortex that can learn.
I guess I’m just politically incorrect, but I found the firing of Larry Summers at Harvard to be a huge mistake and overreaction. I am not in the least threatened by research pointing to cognitive differences between men and women, although I am deeply troubled by our failures to encourage interest in science, math, and computer science among girls. We can do better.
nkashani · May 14, 2007 at 12:04 am
I have neither a male or female brain, I got a 0 on the scale. I found it interesting that my right hemisphere is dominant because my left thumb is was on top when i clasped my hands together. I have always wondered why females tend to look at their nails differently than men? (Women with their hand stretched out in front of them and men look at their nails with their hands curled)
LaurenBabek · May 15, 2007 at 4:53 pm
On the BBC Test, I scored 50 on the male side of the scale which, strangely enough, is what the average male scores on the test. Although these results surprised me at first, I know I was definitely a tomboy growing up as I did, and still do, prefer sports over ballet anyday, and I’m sure having three younger brothers only influences me to think more like a male than a female. And now that I come to think of it, I have always gotten along better with boys than with girls, for as my results state, I am better at communicating non-verbally, with actions rather than words– which is exactly how boys communicate! But this non-verbal communication is something I definitely need to work on becauseI am an English Major! :o)
eduax · May 16, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I scored 25% male, and was mildly offended but was pleased that it suggested I could be an Engineer, since i’ve always been terrible at math and the such. I guess my skills at spatial tasks make up for it! I’ve been having fun making my male coworkers take the test to see how they score. One was totally the “average male” on everything and got a 50%, and another scored 25% just like me! My Supervisor (a girl) scored 50% male as well.
As for men and women looking at their nails differently, more often than not, I tend to look at my nails with my fingers curled instead of straight out in front of me. However, if my nails are nicely painted and filed, I tend to look at them in a more feminine manner. I guess it just depends…
genevieve · May 18, 2007 at 8:27 pm
These tests do seem to suggest a hormonal predisposition to certain feminine or masculine traits, but I think a lot of it has to do with an individual’s environment. Girls are stereotypically given dolls when they are toddlers and are encouraged to talk about their feelings, while boys are normally given toy trucks and taught to bottle things up. If we were a little more flexible with children during their early development we might see an increase in female scientists and male wedding planners.
ryandixon340 · May 29, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I just finished the BBC test and scored in between 0 and 10 towards the female side of spectrum. This isn’t too surprising because I am really good at reading people and scored pretty above average in all of the empathy tasks. I am also not too great at the whole spatial relation game, hence the psychology major amongst a sea of engineers. After seeing my results from the BBC test I decided to take the less serious one to see how I measured up there. Once again I was said to have a more feminine brain. A little disheartened I continued on my blog testing on the account of boredom. Noticing the other tests on the left of the screen I decided that if I have a female brain I might as well take the good girl bad girl test (substituting parts of questions so they might somewhat apply to myself) and it turns out I am a bad girl… oh well I guess that is enough time wasting on the internet for one day.
nicolekashack · June 4, 2007 at 9:24 am
I took the male/female “brain test” and scored 80 percent female and 20 percent male. I am not surprised by this, or most of what it said, expect for one thing (letting people take advantage of me). But I noticed what one person said about ignoring the things that really are not applicable because they’re are not true, what I think we must do (I realize the quality of the test was not super accurate, but still) is try and figure out why the results came out that way. For instance, everything it said in the results was true (I think with my heart, etc.), but one part was a little off (and even that part was partially true because I am tough in certain situations). But specifically, what in the test made the results like that and why did I answer like I did.
danieceloomis · June 4, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I scored a 50% female brain and am not very surprised by this. I knew I would do terribly below average on the spatial tasks such as the judgments of the lines and rotation of the figure. This suggests that I have lower testosterone levels, since this hormone increases performance in spatial tasks. However, I find it interesting that maps fascinate me and I am really good at finding directions and reading maps. I scored typically well for the female brain on reading emotions and got 71% of the moved objects test correct when the average for females is 46%. They say this may be why women are better at finding the car keys and things of that sort, but then my score fails to reflect how I lose everything. Overall, I think the test is a good predictor for how you think about things but in my own opinion, males and females are more alike than they are different.
lex · June 8, 2007 at 12:30 pm
This test said I was female more than male, though the difference was small. I dont entirely agree with the overall results. Through experience I know I am a bit different than other girls in my thinking and behavior. I’ve always been able to relate to guys more and think more closely to them than my female peers. When I looked at the specific results for the tests it seemed more like me than the overall result.
marissapfohl · June 8, 2007 at 11:57 pm
I definetly scored pretty highly on the male side…like 65% male…which really surprised me. I scored well on the facial analysis, and on the empathy tests. The part that surprised me most was I did well on the spatial rotation task.
giana · June 9, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I was pretty surprised how well I did in the spacial tasks. Despite being a Liberal Arts kind of person, it was odd to see that I scored well above the average for the 3D rotating test. I guess I’m well rounded after all, because I did well on the empathy and typically “female” tests also. I don’t really believe in “male” and “female” brain traits, but it was interesting to see my scores compared to the averages.
R.Nickles · November 9, 2007 at 6:31 pm
My personal brain score was at the 25 mark on the male side, which I find surprising since most of my individual scores are high above the female average, indicating I think quite like a female. I did pretty well on most of the ‘visualizing’ tests, and I believe I’m a visual learner, so this didn’t surprise me too much. However, I had difficulties with recognizing emotion in eyes, but I don’t know how accurate that is… I pride myself on recognizing others’ true emotions! =) I know I have ‘stereotypical male’ characteristics/abilities in that I can understand a map or do fairly well on spatial tests, but I’m glad the test decided I think like a female!
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