Men better map readers because they played with Lego not Barbies, says neuroscientist

‘Men do have better ability at spatial skills... they [were] much more encouraged with construction toys’

MEN are better at map reading because their parents gave them Lego to play with at a young age, a neuroscientist has said.

Gina Rippon, professor of cognitive neuro-imaging at Aston University, said that traditional boys’ toys encouraged skills such as spatial awareness, which is important in map reading, whereas girls were hindered by femalestereotype toys such as Barbies.

Speaking to an audience at the Hay Festival about the differences between male and female brains, Prof Rippon said: “The issue of map reading, which is kind of a manifestation of a spatial skill, is actually supposedly one area where there’s a really robust difference. It does appear that [men] do have some better ability at spatial skills.

“But if you then track back their experience they’ve had with Lego and video games, it’s much higher in boys and they’re much more encouraged with construction toys for example.”

The ability to read maps is reliant on an ability to understand objects in relation to themselves, allowing them to picture the shape of things as well as proportions and dimensions.

Prof Rippon explained that men’s ability to read maps better could be explained as a manifestation of “a tiny biological difference at the beginning which has been magnified by a whole range of different experiences”.

Last year, a survey by Girlguiding said that girls as young as seven felt “boxed in by gender stereotyping”.

Writing in her book The Gendered Brain, Prof Rippon said: “Hints of innate differences and casual biological differences are inextricably entangled with gendered expectations and gendered experiences.”