Gender Differences in Self-Estimated IQ (SEI) and Estimated IQ of Fellow Male and Female Students.

Sergejs Sedunovs, 15560234, Dr Rachel Bromnick, Research Skills 1, PSY1147M
Gender differences in self-estimated IQ (SEI) and estimated IQ of fellow

male and female students.
Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate how students estimate their own
IQ scores, as well as what estimates they provide for the fellow male and
female students. The previous research suggested that women tended to
provide lower self-estimated scores of IQ (SEI) than men. Moreover, both
genders tended to estimate males IQ higher than females, such as fathers
IQ being estimated higher than mothers (Bennet, 1996; Hogan 1978). The
present study was a partial replication of Hogan (1978). A sample of 1388
students aged between 18 and 28 was obtained using the opportunity
sampling method. Participants were required to fill in the questionnaire
that asked them to provide an estimate of their own IQ, as well as of
typical female and male student. The results have shown that there was a
significant difference between males and females in the way that they
estimated their own IQ (U= 197251, Na = 694, Nb = 693, p = 0.001).
Next, there was a significant difference in the way that male participants
estimated their own IQ and the IQ of fellow male and female students
(XF^2 (2) = 53.685, p= 0.001). This was also true for female participants
(XF^2 (2) = 69.464, p= 0.001). Due to multiple comparisons in order to
examine where the actual differences occur, the post hoc testing was
required. The post-hoc testing was conducted, using Wilcoxon signed-rank
with a Bonferroni correction applied and the significance was established
again. Finally, a more detailed approach in investigating the factors
influencing self-estimates of intelligence and other peoples estimates on
significant abilities and traits may be needed.
Contents
Abstract.............................................................................................................. 1
Introduction........................................................................................................ 3
Method............................................................................................................... 5
Results................................................................................................................ 6
Discussion.......................................................................................................... 8
References........................................................................................................ 10
Appendices....................................................................................................... 11
Introduction
Over the past three decades, there have been vast amount of
experiments on the self-estimation of intelligence (Beloff, 1992; Bennett,
1997; Betsworth, 1999; Furnham, 2001; Furham, Hosoe, & Tang, 2001;
Hogan, 1978). Most studies focused on investigating sex differences in
self-estimation of intelligence and it was found that women tended to give
lower self-estimate scores than men (Byrd & Stacey, 1993; Furnham &
Gasson, 1998; Furnham, Clark & Bailey, 1999; Furnham, Fong, & Martin,
1999). Moreover, it was also demonstrated that this gender difference in
self-estimates of intelligence can be replicated cross-culturally. Studies
conducted in Africa, America, East Asia and Europe nearly all
demonstrated the tendency of women underestimating their own selfestimates of intelligence compared to men (Furnham, Fong, & Martin,
1999b; Furnham, Rakow, Sarmany-Schiller, & De Fruyt, 1999c; Zhang &
Gong, 2001).
Hogan (1978) was one of the first researchers to explore this area. In his
11 consecutive studies, Hogan collected the data from 1901 white
American participants by presenting them with questionnaire, asking to
provide an estimation of their own, their fathers and their mothers IQ
scores. The results have demonstrated that females were more likely to
underestimate their own self-estimated IQ (SEI) as compared to male selfestimates. Moreover, it was found that females resulted in attributing
higher IQ scores to others than they attributed themselves. Furthermore,
it was found that both males and females attributed higher IQ scores to
their fathers rather than their mothers. Hogan (1978) suggested that
womens tendency to perceive themselves as being less intelligent than
men is because of their rejection of intellectual equality, which in turn
socially rewards and results in a better relations with men. However, it is
important to mention that participants of those studies were only

students, which leads to a problem with generalizing those findings to a
wider population.
Furthermore, Beloff (1992) study supported the findings of Hogan (1978).
In her study consisting of 767 Scottish students, Beloff found the same
tendency of women attributing lower IQ scores themselves compared to
men. She argued that during the period of womens upbringing, there is a
strong emphasis on humility, which results in an inferior intellectual selfimage compared to men. Beloff (1992) named this the female humility
versus the male hubris effect. However, Byrd and Stacey (1993) replicated
this study using the sample of New Zealand students, it was found that
there was no significant gender differences in self-estimates of IQ.
On the other hand, some researchers argued that an overall estimate of
IQ does not take into account important dimensional differences.
Therefore, Bennet (1996) applied Gardners (1983) concept of
interpersonal intelligence, which refers to understanding the behaviour,
thoughts and feelings of others. Participants of his study were 144 British
undergraduate students who were asked to provide their own and their
parents general and interpersonal IQ. As in Hogans (1978) study, it was
found that males attributed higher IQ scores to themselves compared to
females, and both females and males rated their fathers IQ higher than
their mothers. However, more importantly it was found that mens selfestimates of interpersonal IQ were not significantly different to females.
Moreover, the estimates of interpersonal IQ provided by both females and
males for their parents have demonstrated that mothers interpersonal IQ
was significantly higher compared to fathers. Next, Bennet (1997) factor
analysed intelligence self-estimates by applying Gardners theory of
multiple intelligences and have found two factors. One of the factors
included spatial, logical-mathematical and kinaesthetic intelligence and
other factor included linguistic, musical and personal intelligence. Further,
Bennet (2000) has provided evidence that those two factors broadly
characterize Western stereotypes about feminine and masculine type of
4
intelligence. In his study, male participants self-estimates on spatial,

logical-mathematical and kinaesthetic intelligence was significantly higher
compared to female participants on this factor.
The aim of the experiment is to investigate how students estimate their
own IQ scores, as well as what estimates they provide for the fellow male
and female students. The first hypothesis of the experiment is that there
will be a significant gender difference in SEI. Second hypothesis is that
there will be a significant difference between female and male students
self-estimated IQ (SEI) in contrast to their estimates of other female and
male students.
Method
Participants
The sample was obtained using opportunity sampling method, as it was
the quickest method to collect the data. It consisted of 1388 students from
the University of Lincoln: 693 female and 695 male. The age of the
participants ranged between 18 and 28 with the average age of 19 and
standard deviation of 1.17.
Measures
This experiment used a questionnaire (see Appendix 1) that was divided
into two parts. First part required participants to provide the information
about their gender, age, ethnicity, degree course and year of study. It also
included the brief explanation of the aims of the study.
The second part of the questionnaire provided basic information about IQ,
including the graph demonstrating the distribution of IQ scores. Finally,
participants were required to provide the estimates of their own IQ, as well
as of typical male and female student.
Procedure
Participants were informed about the nature of the experiment and were
told that their results are going to be anonymous. Then participants were
asked to complete both parts of the questionnaire. After completing the
questionnaire, participants were debriefed by revealing the aims of the
experiment. Finally, the data collected from the participants was entered
into the statistical software SPSS and analysed
Ethics
All the participants were instructed about the main procedures of the
experiment in order to avoid any form of deception and given the
opportunity to ask any questions before the data was obtained.
Participants were told that their participation is voluntary and that they
could leave at any point of the experiment if the felt any kind of
discomfort. All the data obtained from the participants was stored
securely and there was no breach in confidentiality. The experiment did
not involve real risks of any participants experiencing either physical pain
or psychological distress. Finally, all of the participants were debriefed at
the end of the experiment and given the opportunity to ask any questions
about the nature of the study.
Results
Gender
Own-IQ
Male
Female-IQ
Male-IQ
Minimum
Maximum
694
55
200
110
108.9
Deviation
12.3
695
55
148
105
106.2
10
142
105
105.6
9.76
695
60
Median
Mean
Standard
Own-IQ
Female
Female-IQ
Male-IQ
693
60
160
105
105.3
12.4
693
55
110
110
107.3
11.1
693
50
140
103
103.9
10.3
The sample of 1388 participants was divided into two gender groups: 693 female
and 695 male. Each gender group provided the self-estimated IQ and IQ
estimates of other female and male participants. The mean, standard deviation,
minimum, maximum and median of IQ estimates are presented in the Table 1.
Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for each gender group.
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Own IQ
Female IQ
Male IQ
Own IQ
Female IQ
Male IQ
Figure 1 shows the average self-estimated IQ for male and female and the
average IQ estimates for other female and male participants.
The results presented in Table 1 and Figure 1 demonstrate that female SEI on
average was 105.3, which is slightly lower than men, who had an average of
108.9. Furthermore, it was shown that the minimum and maximum of SEI for
females was 60 and 160 respectively, whereas for males it was 55 and 200.
Moreover, it was found that on average, male students estimated other female
students IQ higher (M= 106.2) than for male students (M=105.6). The same
pattern can be seen for female students that on average estimated the IQ of
other female students being higher (M=107.3) than male students (103.9).
The Mann Whitney-U test was applied (See Appendix 2) to test the first
hypothesis, which stated that there would be a significant difference in overall
SEI between females and males. The results of a Mann-Whitney U-test showed
that there is a significant difference between male and females SEI (U= 197251,
Na = 694, Nb = 693, p = 0.001)
Next, Friedmans test was applied (See Appendix 3) in order to test the second
hypothesis, which stated that there will be a significant difference between male
and female participants SEI in comparison to IQ estimates of female and male
students. The results of Friedmans test showed that there is a significant
difference in the way that male participants estimated their own IQ and the IQ of
fellow male and female students (XF^2 (2) = 53.685, p= 0.001). This was also
true for female participants (XF^2 (2) = 69.464, p= 0.001).
Due to multiple comparisons in order to examine where the actual differences
occur, the post hoc testing is required. The post-hoc testing was conducted,
using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (See Appendix 4) with a Bonferroni correction
applied, resulting in a new significance level at p< 0.017. There was a significant
8

difference between the SEI of female participants and estimated IQ of fellow
female (Z=-5.115, n=693, p=0.001) and male students (Z=-2.566, n=695,
p=0.010). This was also true for male participants, with a significant difference
between the SEI and estimated IQ of other male (Z=-7.125, n=695, p=0.001)
and female students (Z=-5.388, n=693, p=0.001). Also, there was a significant
gender difference in the way female participants estimated the IQ of male and
female students (Z=-8.701, n=693, p=0.001), however this was not true for
male participants, where no significance was found (Z= -1.764, n=695,
p=0.078).
Discussion
The present study replicated the findings of previous studies on self-estimated
intelligence (Hogan 1978) and the results demonstrated that there is a
significant gender difference between female and male participants selfestimated IQ (SEI), with males providing significantly higher IQ scores than
females. Furthermore, results also suggest that there is a significant gender
difference between male and female participants SEI in comparison to IQ
estimates of male and female students.
It was pointed out that one of the reasons for male-favouring difference in SEI
could be due to a request of an overall IQ estimate rather than the summation of
multiple IQ aspects (Petrides, Furnham, & Martin, 2004). This finding can be
explained in the way that perceptions of intelligence are male-normative, thus
males tend to associate overall IQ with numerical and spatial ability in which
they are more likely to perform better than females. Therefore, when male are
requested to provide an overall estimate of intelligence, they place excessively
higher weight on those abilities, which results in a significant male-favouring
difference in the overall estimate of intelligence
Furthermore, Reilly and Mulhern (1995) argued that gender differences in SEI can
be caused by outliers, a few female participants highly underestimating their
intelligence and some males extremely overestimating their intelligence.
Therefore, a removal of such outliers could potentially eliminate the gender
difference in SEI.
Although, the second hypothesis was found to be significant, the results show
that males did not rate their own gender as being more intelligent, whereas
9

women did. Males rated female intelligence (M=106.2, SD= 10) slightly higher
than their own gender (M=105.6, SD= 9.76) and females rated male intelligence
(M= 103.9, SD= 10.3) lower than females (M= 107.3, SD=11.1). This could
suggest that there might be a change in the way intelligence is perceived in the
modern society. Therefore, it may be argued that attitudes related to female
intelligence are more likely to be changing and the initial findings by Hogan
(1978) may not be up to date. More evidence comes from a study conducted in
Russia (Furnham, 2012) which also did not find a significant gender difference.
Finally, for future research it can be suggested to use psychometric IQ tests
alongside self-estimates of intelligence in order to see whether females are
under-estimating, their own intelligence or males are over-estimating it, or both
are occurring at the same time. Moreover, it could be interesting to look at the
outliers of the study, females that provide very high IQ scores and males that
give very low scores to themselves, to see what are the reasons for it and when
it occurs. Furthermore, a more detailed approach in investigating the factors
influencing self-estimates of intelligence and other peoples estimates on
significant abilities and traits may be needed. More research in this area could
help understand more of the processes that may result in negative selfevaluations and stereotypical judgments about other peoples abilities.
Word count =1,942
10
References
Furnham, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2005).Estimating Ones Own and Ones
Relatives Multiple Intelligence: A Study from Argentina. The Spanish Journal of
Psychology, 8(1), 12-20.
Furnham, A. (2000). Parent estimates of their own and their children's multiple
intelligences. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18, 583-594.
Furnham, A. (2001). Self-estimates of intelligence: Culture and gender
differences in self and other estimates of General (g) and multiple intelligences.
Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 1381-1405.
Petrides, K. V., Furnham, A., & Martin, G. N. (2004). Estimates of emotional and
psychometric intelligence: Evidence for gender-based stereotypes. The Journal of
Social Psychology, 144, 149- 162.
Furnham, A. (2005). Gender and Personality Differences in Self- and Other
Ratings of Business Intelligence. British Journal of Management,
16(2), 91-103.
Furnham, A., & Shagabutdinova, K. (2012). Sex differences in estimating multiple
intelligences in self and others: A replication in Russia. International Journal of
Psychology, 47(6), 448-459.
Furnham, A., & Szymanowicz, K. (2013). Gender and Gender Role Differences in
Self-and other-estimates of Multiple Intelligences. Journal of Social Psychology,
153(4), 399-423
Hogan, H. (1978). IQ self-estimates of males and females. Journal of Social
Psychology, 106, 137-138.
Bennett, M. (1996). Mens and womens self-estimates of intelligence. Journal of
Social Psychology, 136(3), 411-412.
11
Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
12
Appendix 3
13
Appendix 4
14

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Sergejs Sedunovs, 15560234, Dr Rachel Bromnick, Research Skills 1, PSY1147M