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Its thanks to Lego that men are better at reading maps.
Men are better than women at reading maps because of the toys they played with as children according to Professor Gina Rippon an expert on the brain.
Boys learn to think differently to girls, who tend to play with dolls. She says that it is a myth that men’s and women’s brains are that very different. But that any contrasts are because of the different experiences of growing up not gender.
Even though there are biological differences between men and women’s brains those differences could also be put down to gendered expectations. And also gendered experiences. Map reading is a kind of spatial skill. It is supposedly an area where there is a robust difference.
On average men have some better ability at spatial skills. But if you track back to the experience they’ve had with Lego and video games. In boys, it is much higher and they are encouraged a lot more with construction toys for example.
It is hard to know if the adult difference is maybe a tiny biological difference at the beginning which is then magnified by a whole range of different experiences.
In a study last year it found that women from countries that had made more strides towards equality in the workplace like the UK, Australia, and the US are better at navigating than women from countries where their role in society is less advanced.
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