A common image from my childhood is a road trip in which my dad is driving the car while my mom is sitting in the passenger seat holding a map and attempting to navigate. Soon enough my dad gets fed up with my mom's incompetence. "Are you sure you're not holding it upside down?" he asks as he snatches the map out of her hands. Soon he decides it would be much easier if he just drove and read the map at the same time.
Although it may just sound like an outdated stereotype, there is actually scientific evidence to back up the claim that men are better navigators than women. It has been proven in many different studies that men have better spatial memory than women do. One hypothesis that tries to explain this evidence dates back to prehistoric times. It says that since men were the ones out hunting for food in unfamiliar territories to feed their families they developed a better spatial memory over time. Some scientists also believe that testosterone is related to spatial memory.
This was really interesting. I never thought that men were truly better and directions and now knowing this I wouldn't have even thought it would possibly be due to human adaptation.
I'm guessing that their is many outliers where some men can't navigate and some woman understand completely. I remember that in class that taxi cab drivers have larger and more active spatial memories than the average person as well. I agree that these are the trends in society, however I'm sure many females can develop just as strong spatial memory as males.
I definitely agree with this although I do think that many females can develop just as strong of spatial memory as males. I have a friend who drives the highways in our town every day but still has to ask me every time we get on one whether to go north, south, east, west and vice versa. There might be other influences, like whether they have been taught by their father or mother to drive, many women (not saying all or making any claim) don't drive as much as men do so when mother's teach there children to drive the don't include all the knowledge and driving tools men can add from their experience.
I thought that this post was very eye-opening. I know from personal experience that women often have trouble navigating their way around (from various road trips with my friends and just trying to navigate our way around the city). I think that the hypothesis that men are better at navigating because of prehistoric experience with hunting of the food is very valid. I think that a lot of men today immediately blame any trouble with navigation on the intelligence of the women around them, which is completely unfair. The information provided in this post just proves that poor navigation has nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with our genetics.
Very interesting read. I do not know where to stand on this topic but I do know that I've been witness of my father grabbing the map from my mom on a long road trip. As far as who is better at navigation, that is very tricky and could be due to many other factors that we don't see or take into consideration. Personally, I think woman are just as capable as men are at directions but some factors and pre-notions lead men to believe the ability to read the maps is based on intelligence.
Great post! While reading the beginning of your post about directions in the car, I flashed back to plenty of memories of the same thing occurring between my dad and my mom. Before reading your part about prehistoric times and about men hunting, I had tried to guess as to why this is, and that was the first thing that came to my mind! It's crazy how things that occur so long ago can still have a an effect on situations and events that occur in today's world!
I really appreciated the connections you drew in this post and its nice to actually hear the reasons that this increased spatial ability developed in men. I'm glad to have more of an explanation for why my guy friends can navigate a department store for the second time in their lives better than I can for the twentieth.
This is very interesting. I for one am horrible at directions, especially in unfamiliar places. Both my Dad and Step-Dad are very good at directions and knowing where they are at all times. However, I have seen that when men get lost, they refuse to ask for directions. Now I wonder why that is?
It is so fascinating to think that the reasoning behind a simple, yet seemingly true fact about men being better with directions stems all the way back to prehistoric times during the hunting and gathering period. I found this blog entry to be very fun and interesting, and I also thought that the hypothesis you presented was fairly legitimate. This is a good article to read for further observations on the subject: http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-gaming/article/2008-03/whos-better-giving-directions-men-or-women.
In the article, an evolutionary psychologist observes men and women at a farmer's market in Santa Barbara, CA. At the market, he realizes that women are, in fact, better with directions in one sense, and that involves being able to recognize certain landmarks (in this case food stands) that they have experience with.
I also think that men tend to be better with directions than women. My dad and I have a good sense of direction and rarely get lost. My sister and mom, on the other hand, are awful navigators. My sister constantly calls me or my dad because she is lost or needs directions somewhere. For Christmas we got her a GPS which has tremendously helped her and has cut down on the phone calls.