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Study Shows Men Overestimate Their Own Intelligence

Katelyn Cooper and Sara Brownell, are a doctoral student and assistant professor, respectively, at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences. Their recently published study confirmed what they and countless other women have experienced firsthand-that male students in STEM fields tend to both overestimate their own intelligence, achievement and credentials, underestimating their female classmates in the process.

After working in pairs and groups, a group of undergraduate biology students were asked to estimate their own abilities relative to the rest of the class. Standard statistical outcomes dictate that half of any group should place above the average grade, with the other half below. But the average man ranked himself above 66 percent of the class, while the average woman ranked herself as only smarter than 33 percent of the class.

"This echoes what has been previously shown in the literature," Cooper and Brownell reported. "A review of nearly 20 published papers on self-estimated intelligence concluded that men rate themselves higher than women on self-estimated intelligence."

Another researcher from Vanderbilt University noted, "Boys [are often] more comfortable saying they understand something without having an actual deeper understanding,"

Potential Preaching Angles: Let us not be wise in our own eyes. Wisdom requires you to be quick to listen and slow to speak. The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom.

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