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Why do women suck at driving?

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I

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
'Bad' women drivers: hormone link

Map reading and parking may prove difficult for some women because they were exposed to too little testosterone in the womb, researchers suggest.

The study, in the journal Intelligence, fuels the age-old male myth that women are deficient in these skills.

Scientists from the University of Giessen, Germany, found a lack of the hormone affects spatial ability.

Low testosterone levels are also linked to shorter wedding ring fingers, they say.

The research looked at the spatial, numerical and verbal skills of 40 student volunteers.

Spatial skill is the ability to assess and orientate shapes and spaces. Map reading and parking are spatial skills which men often say women lack. Women tend to disagree.

The researchers also looked at the length of the students' wedding and index fingers.

In women, the two fingers are usually almost equal in length, as measured from the crease nearest the palm to the fingertip. In men, the ring finger tends to be much longer than the index.

For one of the spatial tests, volunteers had to tell which of five drawings could not be rotated so it looked like the other four.

The other test involved the ability to think in 3D by mentally "unfolding" a complex shape.

Overall, men achieved higher scores in the tests than women.

But women with the male pattern of finger length did better than those whose wedding finger was shorter.

They also scored better on the numerical tests.

Fertility

Writing in Intelligence, the researchers, led by Dr Petra Kempel, said women who had 'male-like' finger length ratio patterns outperformed other women.

They added that the differences seen within the group studied were "remarkable."

However, the researchers accept that their study was limited because only one saliva sample was taken from each person, and no detailed account was taken of women's menstrual cycle, which can affect hormone balance.

Other studies looking at finger length ratio have suggested that, in men a long ring finger and symmetrical hands are an indication of fertility, and that women are more likely to be fertile if they have a longer index finger.

Another study controversially suggested that finger length ratio could also be linked to sexual orientation, with lesbian women having a greater difference in length between their ring finger and index finger than straight women do.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4202199.stm

Now all we need to do is discover the gene that prevents men from asking for directions, and the world's traffic problems can be solved through hormone treatments and genetic engineering!
 
M

Mike Works

Member
iapetus said:
Now all we need to do is discover the gene that prevents men from asking for directions, and the world's traffic problems can be solved through hormone treatments and genetic engineering!
Click to expand...
Wow, that was terrible. That sounds like a joke Rosie O'Donnel would've made on her daytime talkshow. You could be the 5th member on The View.
 
L

LakeEarth

Member
I was just thinking earlier how stereotypes are true sometimes. Driving home from school was a nightmare because I was on a busy 2 lane road so I was stuck behind a lineup of 6 cars, but I could tell the black car in the very front had NOTHING in front of him/her. I said out loud "I bet anything it's a female, elderly and asian". I thought about what I just said and thought that maybe I'm becoming a little racist or something. I kinda got mad at myself.

The road split into four lanes so I could finally pass this slow mover and see what the person looked like. Two out of three (she wasn't old).
 
I

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
Heh. That's what happens when you make an edit purely because you fear the screaming dribbling hordes of Political Correctness after an office meal with an open bar.
 
L

Loki

Count of Concision
Incidentally, I've never understood the problem some people (mostly men) have with asking for directions. The few times I've been on road trips armed only with a Mapquest.com's or a friend's directions and have gotten somewhat lost, I'm the first person to go searching for some civilization (gas station etc.) to ask for help.


What's the freaking shame in NOT KNOWING HOW TO GET TO A PLACE YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE? :lol I've just never understood it-- it's as if people (silly people, imo) see this as some sort of insult to their "manhood". lol I've never heard of something so ridiculous...:lol


If you don't fix cars for a living and someone told you over the phone how to fix your engine, and then you got confused in the process of doing so despite their instructions, would you be so ashamed to ask for help that you'd attempt to "wing it" and finish it on your own? :D
 
N

nitewulf

Member
most female drivers i have known drive way too fast. not necessarily bad mind you, just fast as hell. sh*t what's the hurry?
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
In my experience, most PEOPLE suck at driving. Young, old, male, female, drunk, sober, whatever. Most suck and are constant dangers to the few good drivers out there.
 
M

MaverickX9

Member
nitewulf said:
most female drivers i have known drive way too fast. not necessarily bad mind you, just fast as hell. sh*t what's the hurry?
Click to expand...

I find this to be true, as well. At least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
I really don't like the methodology described. Only 40 people? Finger length? CONTROLS, DAMMIT, CONTROLS.

Oh, and I like how it immediately moves on after saying "overall" men were better, then later describes a wide range in the gamut of female scores.
 
A

aoi tsuki

Member
i'm not trying to perpetuate a stereotype or anything, but i've noticed most of the time when someone's putting makeup on, it's a woman. Maybe it's just me.

Loki said:
Incidentally, I've never understood the problem some people (mostly men) have with asking for directions. The few times I've been on road trips armed only with a Mapquest.com's or a friend's directions and have gotten somewhat lost, I'm the first person to go searching for some civilization (gas station etc.) to ask for help.


What's the freaking shame in NOT KNOWING HOW TO GET TO A PLACE YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE? :lol I've just never understood it-- it's as if people (silly people, imo) see this as some sort of insult to their "manhood". lol I've never heard of something so ridiculous...:lol
Click to expand...
Yeah, i've been in the situation before myself, and every time i can remember, i've always just gotten a little lost, trusted my instincts and/or reoriented myself, and made it to the destination. It's not a macho thing for me. It's just more interesting and personally rewarding to got to a new place, get a little lost, rely on your own skills to get to your destination, rather than asking someone. Most of the time if you go too far, you can just turn right around and start over.

It would be different if i had an appointment to keep. i'd definitely ask for directions as soon as i wasn't sure where i was.
 
L

Loki

Count of Concision
aoi tsuki said:
i'm not trying to perpetuate a stereotype or anything, but i've noticed most of the time when someone's putting makeup on, it's a woman. Maybe it's just me.


Yeah, i've been in the situation before myself, and every time i can remember, i've always just gotten a little lost, trusted my instincts and/or reoriented myself, and made it to the destination. It's not a macho thing for me. It's just more interesting and personally rewarding to got to a new place, get a little lost, rely on your own skills to get to your destination, rather than asking someone. Most of the time if you go too far, you can just turn right around and start over.

It would be different if i had an appointment to keep. i'd definitely ask for directions as soon as i wasn't sure where i was.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've gotten lost and reoriented myself as well, but sometimes you just get REALLY lost and it can't be corrected without assistance. Where do you live, if you don't mind? I can assure you that it's not as easy to right your course on labyrinthine roadways as seen in NY/NJ as opposed to long, open, straight roads in middle America. :p
 
D

Drexon

Banned
So basically the article says: Fuck you gf as much as possible during the pregnancy, without protection and shoot inside her. I'm serious. :)

Actually, read that women get a lot of testosterone from male seamen during unprotected sex, they also feel better and are more often in the mood when exposed to testosterone. ;)
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
ManDudeChild said:
Can someone explain to me how this is actually news? I mean this has been common knowlegdge for awhile now. I don't mean in stereotype form either...

http://www.theabsolute.net/misogyny/brainsx.html
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First of all, "common knowledge" has a poor relability track record, and second, that link of yours makes an obvious logical error: Even if there is a difference between the "average" man and "average" woman, the range of differences WITHIN both groups is so large as to render conclusions derived from comparisons BETWEEN them flawed. For every Future Trunks there's an AlphaSnake.
 
Cauliflower of Love

Cauliflower of Love

Banned
It's all the estrogen. That's only good for cooking and cleaning.


edit:

I typed this before even glancing over the article. I had no idea it was about hormones.
*hi five
 
A

aoi tsuki

Member
Loki said:
Yeah, I've gotten lost and reoriented myself as well, but sometimes you just get REALLY lost and it can't be corrected without assistance. Where do you live, if you don't mind? I can assure you that it's not as easy to right your course on labyrinthine roadways as seen in NY/NJ as opposed to long, open, straight roads in middle America. :p
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A small city in NC at the moment, but i was basing my experience on driving in the Detroit area. i'm sure i'd get lost in a place like NY or NJ, and i wouldn't have a problem asking for directions. But until now, i haven't had to.
 
E

etiolate

Banned
Everytime I remember that I pay more for car insurance simply because I'm male it pisses me off. It's really fucking annoying, because its more a social clique sort of deal. It's like my sister is half blind and been in accidents, but HEY SHES FEMALE SHE MUST BE SAFER! ....

It's more or less wild oats, young males with too much testosterone driving up my rates. The women in my family have had about 10x the amount of accidents than the males. Where are the men responsible for the statistics? STAND UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! I am not paying for your lack of penis anymore.
 
I

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
border said:
Now let's discover the gene that prevents men from putting the toilet seat down! HAHAHAHAHA
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Bizarrely, I've given some serious thought to that question in the past. My opinion is that you should randomly leave the seat up or down based on the genders of the other people in the house. Each woman counts as 100% down, each man counts as 80% up. So when I shared this house with one man and one woman, each of the men should have left the seat down 60% of the time, and the woman should have left the seat down a mere 20% of the time. This gives the best likelihood of the seat being in an appropriate position for the next user.

Clearly the numbers should be changed in certain extreme circumstances (like curry nights).
 
M

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Let's see here...my sister has been ticketed for speeding and driving with a cell phone, has hit a deer, has been in 2 fender benders, and has skidded out 3 times (never in snowy or icy weather) all in the course of less than 2 years.

I have had no tickets, hit no deer, have been in 3 fender benders (two of which involved me being hit from behind...all involving women), and no skid-outs in over 6 years.


Hmm...suspicious.
 
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