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This could be a consequence of the variability hypothesis[1] interacting with the way grades are distributed. If grades tend to have a lot of negative skewness

This could be a consequence of the variability hypothesis[1] interacting with the way grades are distributed. If grades tend to have a lot of negative skewness, that means that it pays to be in a group that has the least number of extreme underperformers, since your group's outperformers are handicapped due to the upper bound existing near the mean. That means we expect men to underperform in domains that have lots of negative skewness in the outcome distribution, assuming [1] holds. In domains where there's a lot of positive skewness in the outcomes distribution, we would expect the opposite result. As a first step, we would want to check how grades are actually distributed in the raw data, and whether there is an inter-country correlation between its grades' skewness and its male-to-female differences. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variability_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variability_hypothesis

abhyudaya63 6y ago
Variability hypothesis seems to downplay the cultural aspects a lot. Males were generally thought to have better visual sense of an object but the advantage was nullified when females were tested with objects that they are most familiar with. And you are right that we should check for inter-country data. It will provide a more accurate view.
- hntrader 6y ago
  "better visual sense" This example pertains to mean skill level which doesn't seem relevant to the variability hypothesis (which pertains instead to variance of traits/skills/interests). If your point is that the empirical findings underpinning the variability hypothesis may have some cultural causes instead of being only genetic, then we don't disagree. But I wouldn't agree that the culture-over-genes perspective is undersubscribed, that's the most fashionable and socially acceptable perspective to take.

abhyudaya63 6y ago

Variability hypothesis seems to downplay the cultural aspects a lot. Males were generally thought to have better visual sense of an object but the advantage was nullified when females were tested with objects that they are most familiar with. And you are right that we should check for inter-country data. It will provide a more accurate view.

hntrader 6y ago
"better visual sense" This example pertains to mean skill level which doesn't seem relevant to the variability hypothesis (which pertains instead to variance of traits/skills/interests). If your point is that the empirical findings underpinning the variability hypothesis may have some cultural causes instead of being only genetic, then we don't disagree. But I wouldn't agree that the culture-over-genes perspective is undersubscribed, that's the most fashionable and socially acceptable perspective to take.