Last week one of the big science stories to hit the news was the publication of a brain scanning paper that purportedly used science to back the popular stereotype that men are better than women at navigation and various other action-related tasks, and women are allegedly better at all that intuitive stuff.
Is this news true? Who knows? The stories don’t offer any real backing for the claim and there seemed to be rampant confusion between chatty speculation and experimentally-grounded observation.
Most of the stories I read failed to answer the most a basic, critical questions needed to determine what, if anything, presented in this paper is newsworthy, interesting or true.
Read the full, original story: Science Reporters Lose Their Way in Story on Male Navigation Prowess and Brain Connectivity
Additional Resources:
- “Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal,” Guardian
- “Men, Women, and Big PNAS Papers,” Discover
- “Getting in a Tangle Over Men’s and Women’s Brain Wiring,” Wired
