Well, boys in nations where women aren't treated equally, that is.
A recent study published in Science suggests that the "math gap" that is widely recognized in performance on tests of basic skills isn't related to biology as previously thought. It seems that social equality plays the dominant role in test
scores.
The study looked at more than 275,000 students in 40 countries who took a particular exam. In summary:
Girls scored about 2 percent lower than boys on math on average, but
nearly 7 percent higher on reading, consistent with previous test
results.
The researchers, noted, however, that the math gap wasn't consistent
between countries. For example, it was nearly twice as large as the
average in Turkey, while Icelandic girls outscored males by roughly 2
percent. The general pattern of these differences suggested to the
authors that the performance differences correlated with the status of
women. The authors of the study built a composite score that reflected
the gender equality of the countries based on the World Economic
Forum's Gender Gap Index, data extracted from the World Values Surveys,
measures of female political participation, and measures of the
economic significance of females.
In nations that score high on gender equality measures the math gap is extremely small. In contrast, nations at the other end
of the spectrum which have the largest gender gap also have the largest math gap.
If you click on the study, too, you'll note an irony: It suggests that
while the math gap correlates to gaps in social equality, boys' lagging
reading skills don't. Female superiority in reading tests is slightly lower than average in
Turkey, but the gap is actually wider in countries with greater
equality between the sexes. In Iceland, for example, girls outscore
boys by well over 10 percent. Of course that doesn't mean some other social factor isn't at work
Link to the study.
| 
3
Re: So boys really ARE better at math?
Comments rated to be Good Answers: