Unfortunately, they didn’t. As usual, boys being boys (and perhaps in the spirit of the above research) a lot of shortcuts were taken in their leaps of logic to prove that current shifts in masculinity have little or nothing to do real men, or their supposed superiority.
However, when you dig into the University of California’s findings, a more nuanced, and far more interesting picture emerges. When data from the second survey was matched with data from The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, researchers noted that women from countries where equality levels were higher scored equally as well as men in navigation tests.
More pointedly, where higher inequality existed, this was reflected in how women scored in terms of their navigational prowess. Similarly, regardless of gender, people from wealthier countries did better than those from poorer ones, while Scandinavians, due perhaps to the so-called ‘Viking gene’, faired the best, regardless of gender.
Findings from the University of California’s work have also being heavily caveated by its own research team, who point out that they used gaming software to reach their conclusions, which more men reported being familiar with and using more than their female counterparts. This, they believed, made men risk-friendly, and more likely to take short-cuts – attributes that may be useful in gaming, but not when it comes to driving in real life, or navigating how we live, work or play.
So, far from being two pieces of research that reinforce old stereotypes, each reminds us of the complex nature of gender, and how, inevitably, it is still very much informed by accepted views of culture, access to education, healthcare and fiscal equality. How we navigate and define gender itself – as much as how we navigate our roads, or take risks behind the wheel.
For more on rewriting the narratives around gender, explore our Near Futures series on our trends intelligence platform, LS:N Global: Female Futures and New Masculinity.
