Why are (the best) women so good at chess? Participation rates and gender differences in intellectual domains.

Full Abstract

A popular explanation for the small number of women at the top level of intellectually demanding activities from chess to science appeals to biological differences in the intellectual abilities of men and women. An alternative explanation is that the extreme values in a large sample are likely to be greater than those in a small one. Although the performance of the 100 best German male chess players is better than that of the 100 best German women, we show that 96 per cent of the observed difference would be expected given the much greater number of men who play chess. There is little left for biological or cultural explanations to account for. In science, where there are many more male than female participants, this statistical sampling explanation, rather than differences in intellectual ability, may also be the main reason why women are under-represented at the top end.

Author information

Author/s: Bilalic, Merim (M); Smallbone, Kieran (K); McLeod, Peter (P); Gobet, Fernand (F);

Affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. merim.bilalic(-atsign-)med.uni-tuebingen.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society (Proc Biol Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Mar; vol 276 (issue 1659) : pp 1161-5

Dates: Created 2009/02/09; Completed 2009/03/24; Revised 2009/05/19;

PMID: 19129102, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/20/2009, IMS Date: 20 May 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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