What is the evolutionary reason for why men tend to be more interested in mathematical thinking?

Question

Men, more than women, tend to be engineers, mathematicians, physicists etc. What evolutionary reason dictates this tendency?

Answer 1

Well, I'm a little late on the scene here, so I won't go in to a big dissertation. Men are more adapted to analytical thinking, since this was a survival advantage in our past. Women are more adapted to social details.

Answer 2

Wow, you can see the bias in some of these other answers.  "Mundane" social concerns?  We're a social species.  Getting along with the other members of our social group is one of our most basic concerns.

The likelihood is that there is no evolutionary reason for this.  There are biological differences between the sexes, yes, and our brains do work slightly differently.  However, most of the differences that we perceive are due to cultural influences, not to biology.  For instance, the other poster's idea that women are more into, ahem, mundane social concerns.  As I said, we are _all_ into questions of social hierarchy and how our group is doing and what they're getting up to.  Our culture influences us to believe, though, that that's solely women's province, and men are independent loners or something.

Culturally, we also tend to believe that women are less interested in or less good at math and science.  This leads to charming stories like the now middle-aged woman being told in high school that she wasn't allowed to ask any more questions in math class because she was wasting the boys' time.  Do you think she'd go on to get an engineering degree?  This message surrounds us all the time ("math is hard" Barbie and that vile "Too cute to do math" t-shirt I've seen for sale included), and we internalize it, just as we internalize that murder is bad and turkey is what you eat on Thanksgiving.

With humans, it's almost always more enlightening to look at what the cultural reasons behind our behaviors are before you look to the biological.  We are creatures of our culture, to the point that we can't even say what behaviors are "natural" to us.

Answer 3

Consider the cultural reasons.

Who is encouraged to enter these fields and who isn't? When the military opened many jobs, and the military academies,  to females, there was a large backlash. Women were automatically assumed to be too weak, too unskilled or would leave to have children. That's cultural, not environmental.

Consider our cultural stereotypes. The geek, computer nerd,  the 'brain' are all male. That's cultural, not genetic.

Is there an "evolutionary reason for why men..."? If so does that argue women should be denied entry into those fields?

Answer 4

This is not a cultural universal.  If it were, it MIGHT imply that its root cause is evolutionary.  Culture - AKA intraspecies behavioral variation - has to be ruled out before it's even worth assigning evolutionary causes.  To do otherwise invites ideology and conflation of cause and effect.

Jon McN.  I share your respect for neurology - but i don't see much neurology in your answer.  Do you believe that neurologists make up IQ tests?  Please feel free to share the methodology (or citations) which back up the IQ statistics - as well as details about the sample poplation so people can judge for themselves how universal the pattern is (assuming that they accept IQ testing as a universally applicable method of characterizing raw intelligence). Care to explain how something which is not culturally universal is a universal characteristic of our species and therefore evolutionarily significant?  - Some sexual dimorphisms (but by no means all) have evolutionary significance - so maybe you have a point?  Perhaps you can explain which component of the female chromosome determines the neurological sexual dimorphism?  I am not being rhetorical here - educate me - I enjoy learning and understand why you might consider my answer ideological - though not why you would accuse me of being an ideologue simply because I applied anthropological information to address a question posed in an anthropology forum.

Answer 5

because they are men.

i am interested in flowers..i am a woman. i wear beautifull shoes..comparing to the shoes of a woman..the shoes of a man are totally unestethic..

Answer 6

There isn't one because they aren't.

By that kind rationalization, you can also say that the majority of people in jail are black because evolution made them tend towards criminal lifestyle.

It's all cultural – racism and sexism are still unfortunately bred into many of us whether the law says it should be that way or not.

Answer 7

Because math, engineering, maps and hunting strategies (sports, too) are controlled by the Left hemisphere of the brain, and most men are inclined to be left-brain dominant!

Answer 8

Because those cells that grouped together and formed a more advanced brain structure had an advantage and flourished and reproduced! It has to do with hand to eye coordination!This relates to throwing objects and imagining where they would land! It relates to our ability to think in terms of the future! We are the only creature that can think about what will come next and that provides a massive advantage!

Answer 9

Women tend to be more socially oriented and that means more energy spent establishing relationships.  Men are more free to do abstract thinking rather than worrying about mundane social matters which concerns them far less.  Mathematical thinking is very helpful in planning warfare and hunting.  It also helps in complex leadership roles or politics.  It may be more a result of culture and what is expected of men rather than actual abilities but I think our cultures have probably always stressed logical abilities more in males.  Females role is more to get along and nurture.

Answer 10

it is a social stigma

Answer 11

Being able to better rotate objects in space on average give men that do physics and engineering somewhat of an advantage. Males, as many mammals. roam more than females and being able to orientate is advantageous. Plus testosterone has been implicated in this behavior.

Also, at the right extreme of the intelligence distribution males outnumber females 6 to 1. ( extremely high IQ end ) That goes for the left end also.

You confuse two levels of analysis, Fran. The ultimate and the proximate. Typical of environmentalists. This IS the 21st century and we have the evidence. Your analogy was very weak.

Saying it is not a cultural universal does not make your point, Earwax. I will take the evidence from neurology over your extensive anthropological career any day. I think we know who is the ideologue here.

Answer 12

After the development of weapons (sharp objects), men felt empowered.  Women did not take to these devices because they knew that they could be as much harm as safety.  With this empowerment, men began to have big egos. As populations grew, men started warring with these weapons and had to count the number of their enemies. Women were more concerned with counting the number of their children.  Since the number of enemies kept getting larger and larger but the number of children stayed the same, men were getting good practice with large numbers.  So yes, men are good with numbers, wars and having big egos.

Edit:  Men and women have to work together, both are important.  Language developed because we are "social".

Our world would be greatly improved if men would realize women are suppose to be the other side of the equation.

Answer 13

That is not "evolutionary thinking" as you put it.

It is, however, complete poppycock!

Another example of your reasoning exhibited here is:

More whites belong to all white country clubs that people of color. Why do we think this is?

The reason is the same as what you have observed.

Jaysus!