A Study of Sex Differences in Intelligence-Test Scores Among 1,306 Negro College Freshmen

Abstract

The belief in hereditary sex differences in mental ability is an old and persistent one; but among scientists, sex as a cause of differences in intellectual equipment appears to be relatively unimportant. In the general public, however, the belief still prevails, as manifested by the reluctance to open certain educational and professional opportunities to women and by the frequent discrimination against individuals on the basis of sex alone. Experimental studies of sex differthose dealing with the separate parts or specific items of tests of intelligence; and '(3) those dealing with achievement in the several school subjects as revealed by objective educational tests. The results have yielded largely negative conclusions. When large unselected groups are used, when age is taken into account, when possibilities of bias in test content are allowed for, startling differences between the sexes either in average tendency or in variation fail to emerge. It should be noted, however, that this conclusion is re-