Cats have bigger brains than mice and are more intelligent. Are men therefore smarter than women?

Question

In nature brain size is an indication of intelligence, the bigger the brain the more intelligent the creature. Why should this be different for humans?

Answer 1

First of all, I need to expose a few obvious facts about intelligence. Cats have bigger brains than rats. Cats therefore are generally more intelligent beings than rats. I laugh with sweet sorrow when analyzing the poor,vague and remarkably thoughtless rationale others applied when attempting to answer this question. In simple words, the intelligence of an animal could be measured accurately by comparing the weight of the animal's brain, to the weight of the same animal's corporal weight. Ergo by obtaining and comparing ratios, one could obtain an approximate idea of the intelligence of an individual animal and how this animal compares to others. One outstanding fact of nature is that men have bigger brains than their female counterparts. Nevertheless, men are also generally of larger corporal size than women. For that reason men and women have nearly the same potential.

Answer 2

Elephants have MUCH bigger brains than humans. Are they smarter?

You forgot one element in your estimate: that the "smart" part of the brain may not be of different size between woman and men. Perhaps the part of men brains that is larger is the one dealing with spatial orientation, as men are usually better at recognizing an object under different orientation.

But does that make men smarter? I don't think so.

Einstein had an average sized brain, and he was a genius.
Anantole France, a very smart writer from the last century, was found after his death to have a brain about 2/3 the average size.
Perhaps in his case it was a matter of cell miniaturization; not all cells are the same size, after all.

So, you cannot determine how smart someone is just by looking at the size. That could work to some degree by comparing the size between different animals, but not on a case by case basis between individual, or even between sexes, or ethnicity.

(And thinking things like that is not helping at all. How many "Albertine Einstein" were never allowed to develop their full potential, for the benefit of all humanity, just because they were girls, and girls were told they were not smart? That silliness has to stop)

Answer 3

Being a man, I'm tempted to say yes :) But it's not really true. Men have bigger brains on average because our bodies are bigger on average. It doesn't have a real effect on intelligence, because only a small part of the brain is used for cognitive thought. Most of the brain controls muscle reflexes, memory, and even instincts, like whether to run or fight in a dangerous situation.

Human intelligence comes more from how a child is raised than how big its brain is. It's also possible that a chemical deficiency could make someone less intelligent, because their neurotransmitters wouldn't function as well.

Answer 4

1. cats and mice are two difference species so it doesn't even relate to men and women as these are difference sexes of the SAME SPECIES!!!

2. you'd have to measure intelligents across the board as our brains word differently. Assuming that equality is observed only multidisciplinary standardised testing would show a distinction.

Take for example the RAF reflex test, a screen projects mathematical equations which the subject has to solve while at the same time coloured shapes scroll across the screen which the subject has to acknowledge by tapping a specific corner of the screen depending on the shape as quickly as possible. Testing showed that women scored significantly higher illustrating that women a capable of considering multiple variable at any one time. A fact that history proves during the second world war when russia found that women consistantly made better snipers and better pilots than men.

Does this mean that women are more intelligent than men, no, what it seems to show is that in this type of multitasking intelligence women do better. There are many different type of intelligences to consider including physical and communicative.

Answer 5

Are you therefore equating Men with Cats and Women with Mice? Not all men have brains larger than all women; and I thought scientist had agreed it is not in fact the size of a human brain that determines intelligence, but rather the wrinkles on and number of actively working parts of the brain.

For example a woman or man who speaks three languages and keeps learning new ones, is smarter than a man or woman whom only speaks one; because the act of learning and speaking/practicing another language, uses more parts of the brain.

Answer 6

Men and women are equally intelligent, but in terms of brain size, an Elephant has a bigger brain than a human, so will an elephant be winning this years Nobel Prize?
I think not

becuase brain size isn't a brilliantly acurrate method of assesing someone's intelligence, its how the brain works, not necessarily how big it is

Answer 7

No, it's not an indication of intelligence, but the ratio of brain size to body size in considered maybe to be so, since humans have one of the highest of such ratios. Clearly, an elephant would be much smarter than a human if brain size was what made something more intelligent.

Answer 8

Because men don't have a larger amount of brain cells than women.

The adverage size of a man's head might be larger, however that extra space is typically filled with fluid to protect the brain from shock.

Brain size in animals does have a lot to do with the ability to process something. But in some animals a lot more of the brain is dedicated to running the body, rather than independant thought.

Answer 9

" Behind every successful man, there is a woman pushing him along."

I think size of brain doesn't have a whole lot to do with it. Nobody has any idea what the brain's potential is, since we use a small percentage of it. The difference between brain function has to do with how we are all wired. Hormonal difference factor in too. There a number of things that determine how we function. We were created with amazing abilities, but there are so many different things that definatly affect the way in which we all think and act.

Answer 10

It doesn't matter how big your brain is it only matters how much of your brain you use. A ordinary will only use 2% to 5% of there brain. If a human start using more than 10% of his brain his brain size start increasing making its head bigger. When that happen the person starts nhaving very painfull shocks of pain in there head. So it doesn't matter if your a boy or a girl.

Answer 11

where are you getting your info? the size of the brain does indeed matter - but not in terms of intelligence. Larger brains would obviously have the room for more organs, and therefore more functions. I don't think we know yet of any organisms that fit that description though. but the difference in intelligence - if there is one - between male and female brains is negligible. ps. a whales brain is the size of a walnut.