Self-estimates and population estimates of ability in men and women

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that men's IQ self‐estimates are significantly higher than women's (Beloff, 1992; Bennett, 1996; Furnham & Rawles, 1995). Study I examines the hypothesis that men's self enhancement relative to women is unlikely to be general, but specific to abilities viewed as masculine. Participants were required to estimate their ability over each of Gardner's (1993) “intelligences” and to indicate the extent to which they viewed each type of intelligence as either masculine or feminine. The data confirmed the hypothesis. Study 2 replicated these findings. Moreover, it established that participants' population estimates for men's and women's abilities showed consensus between men and women: the population mean for men was judged to be significantly higher in the cases of logical‐mathematical and visuo‐spatial ability, but in women, higher for personal, musical, and linguistic ability. Taken together, these findings are interpreted in the light of gender schema theory (Bern, 1981) as suggesting that abilities are viewed as differentially relevant to men's and women's gender schemas.