Quote Originally Posted by Alex Bragi View Post
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As far as I'm aware there are no statistics out there to suggest that men, generally, have a higher IQ than women, although it is a fact that women do have a proportionately larger brains than men.
What the statistics show is that on average women are just as smart as men and vice versa. However, the smartest people tend to be men and the stupidest people tend to be men, on a measure of IQ.

The idea of the obsessive personality playing a role in genius, is interesting. I am rather skeptical about those obsessions all being derived from a lack of affection from women or dominance by women. Over the history of psychology, just about every form of mental illness has been blamed on mothers. However, over the years research has always shown that this is not the case. (That is not to say that an abusive or neglectful parent wont cause mental problems for a child.)

The idea that obsession with an idea might lead to discoveries or extraordinary skill, has some merit. Persistence pays off. However, once again I would bring up environment. How many women have been allowed the time to indulge in similar pursuit of their obsessions, over the course of history. Women's traditional roles do not allow the solitary pursuit of a skill, or idea, to the exclusion of all else. As the saying goes - behind every great man is a woman. In other words, some one has to cook and clean and take care of the ordinary details of life to enable the obsessed to single mindedly pursue their goals. Very few women have had that kind of back up.

Even more telling perhaps would be class differences. What proportion of genius come from the lower classes. This is another group that had/has limited opportunities to pursue obsessions.