back to article Women crap at parking: Official

A team of University of Pennsylvania boffins appears to have confirmed the commonly held notions that while women are absolutely useless at parking cars, they thrash blokes when it comes to multitasking and empathy. The scientists scanned the brains of 949 peoples aged 8-22 - 428 male and 521 female - and discovered "unique …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Women crap at parking: Official

    But thrash blokes at multitasking and empathy"

    OFFICIAL: University Researchers WASTE 1000's of public cash on bull excretion reports like this that support old fking wives tales!

    Oi!, kn*b rot, stop wasting my cash!

    Sex has nothing to do with it. Have you see the state of some blokes driving "skills" (said in the loosest possible terms)?

    Way to show up HE insts.!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > Have you see the state of some blokes driving "skills" (said in the loosest possible terms)?

      'Some blokes'... Have you heard of a bell curve?

      1. Vic

        > 'Some blokes'... Have you heard of a bell curve?

        If tonight's commute home was anything to go by, I'd say it's more like a bell-end curve...

        Vic.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Funny, I'm reading the reg, running a report, listening to a colleague, laughing at the idiots who believe this bullcr*p and scratching my nuts at the same time. So much for males can't multi task.

  3. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    What I can't understand....

    ...is why the experiment saw it as a disadvantage that women used their whole brain while men only used half.

    It's well known that a man thinks half with his brain and half with his penis.... so we still present 100%...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What I can't understand....

      50% of one plus 50% of the other is still 50% overall but seeing as a man's brain is his penis you're down to 25%.

  4. 1 Million Dollars

    949 people... How can this even be taken seriously? So from a small subset of people they are going to infer world-wide assumptions. I can't even imagine that Pennsylvania has that great a genetic diversity.

    1. disgruntled yank

      "949 people... How can this even be taken seriously? So from a small subset of people they are going to infer world-wide assumptions."

      Quite.

      "I can't even imagine that Pennsylvania has that great a genetic diversity."

      Compared to what, England? The University of Pennsylvania is in Philadelphia, which has pretty much anybody you might be looking for. There are enclaves here and there in Pennsylvania that are not at all diverse, but Philadelphia isn't one--some of its neighborhoods are.

  5. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    Actually...

    ...the experiment measures the development of brain neuron connectivity.

    Brain structure is known to be plastic, and to respond to outside stimuli. One wired-in feature of a brain is that it will learn by taking outside stimuli and modifying itself accordingly. In particular, all young primates/mammals seem to pick up social cues and 'fit in' to society at a very early age.

    So, although this experiment shows the development of male and female brains along different pathways, it does not indicate whether this is because the male/female brain is pre-set to follow these, or whether the social pressures (simplistically, girls playing with dolls and make-up while boys play with guns and football) are the things responsible for the difference in connectivity...

  6. Cleary1981

    Exhibit A

    This should confirm the notion that women (or at least this one!!) are terrible at parking.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf4TIWECZ30

    This was in the student area of Belfast this year and yes she did hit the car in front a few times.

  7. Maharg

    correlation and fish

    “It tells us why, almost always, when men and women are in a car together, the man drives”

    “80 per cent of crashes that killed or seriously injured pedestrians involved male drivers”

    So, article tells us that more men drive compared to women, and most car crash have male drivers, any correlation here?

    I wonder how many car crashes are caused by human drivers compared to fish drivers, I think you will find it proves that fish are safer drivers then people.

    • Note, her indoors is actually a better driver then I am, mostly because her indoors is not actually indoors but spends a great deal of time behind the wheel of a car due to work, while I get the train.

  8. The last doughnut
    Thumb Down

    Yeah - we like kind of did some brain analysis stuff, then convinced ourselves that our commonly held preconceptions were real. You know, like in the '60's.

    1. Martin Budden Silver badge

      You mean like this?

  9. nijam Silver badge

    Multitasking

    Based on my observations of friends, relatives, and colleagues, "multitasking" in this context means "lack of concentration".

  10. Identity
    Mushroom

    WOW!

    This study seems to back up something I've posited for over 30 years, now, that had all and sundry looking at me like I was crazy: that men can be either logical OR emotional, though they can switch rapidly between the two. Women cannot separate the two.

  11. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Windows

    "female brains are designed to facilitate communication between [..] processing modes"

    The credibility of this "study" fell through the floor at that point.

    Our brains are DESIGNED to do one thing : establish connections between neurons. In our early years, our brain is creating new neurons and they are latching on to the comm path, establishing their own connections and existing connections are modified.

    Saying that a woman's brain is designed differently is blatantly false from a scientific point of view.

    What should have been said is that a woman's brain is subject to a different environmental pressure system than a man, and thus creates synaptic connections in a different way.

    And, as far as I'm concerned, one's skill behind the wheel is most highly correlated with the number of kilometers/miles one has driven and that's all. I have clocked over a million kms in personal vehicles, rented vehicles and company vehicles. Because of that, I am used to being called upon by friends (male ones) to drive their moving vans when they change appartment because they know they can count on me to not have them forfeit their deposit because of mishaps.

    I see people drive/park terribly all the time. Not all of them are women, not by a long shot. I do however agree that men are generally WAY more obnoxious when they want. And I think that young drivers should be forbidden by law from driving a car with more than 80hp. More than that is just asking for trouble in the hands of the hormone-ridden security-oblivious youth of any day.

    And get off my lawn !

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "female brains are designed to facilitate communication between [..] processing modes"

      >What should have been said is that a woman's brain is subject to a different environmental pressure system than a man, and thus creates synaptic connections in a different way.

      Possibly. The experiments to settle the nature vs nurture debate re gender characteristics in children up to the age of five are easy to design.... but they would be unethical in the extreme and very expensive to boot.

      In the meantime, there was a radio programme about transgender people, and their experiences in early school life which would suggest there is more going on than a gender-neutral baby brain being shaped by the societal norms around it. Also, there are observable structural changes in a mother-to-be's brain during pregnancy, to help her better deal with the new life tasks ahead of her. These changes are biological, not societal in cause.

      Is is possible that your view is informed by a very laudable idealism?

  12. John Deeb
    Boffin

    Delusions of Gender

    It would be interesting to hear Cordelia Fine's opinion on the matter. In her book Delusions of Gender she makes an interesting and well researched case against the methods of many neuroscientists and their brain scanning interpretations (as well as their "spotlight-floodlight dichotomy"). She takes Ruben Gur as one example and pokes quite some fun at the rather childish presumptions in place at times.

    These types of brain experiments seem pretty useless in isolation as long as they don't take into account earlier development years. Now one can still not prove what is exactly nurture and what is nature.

    Also I'm in doubt if the floodlight or multi-tasking as described is actually such useful mode in practise. No doubt you can notice women being observant, conversant and working at the same time but it doesn't seem a quality in their favour really....

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The City of New York's first pedestrian safety report determined that a whopping 80 per cent of crashes that killed or seriously injured pedestrians involved male drivers."

    but what's the TOTAL percentage split between ALL male and female driver?? if more men drive, then they're bound to be in more accidents. duh.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lack of empathy.

    At least there's a reason I don't give a shit.

  15. A J Stiles
    FAIL

    Hmm

    These studies always use adult brains. It is known that the process of growing up itself alters the way the brain is wired; and I suspect that "hardwired" differences would be found between the brains of manual and cerebral workers, or even between Lefties and Tories.

    Since boys and girls are to all intents and purposes brought up in separate countries, it's hardly surprising that such differences are seen in adults. Differences in neonate brains would be interesting -- but I guess they don't want to look there in case they see something that they don't like.

    Search online for "neurosexism".

  16. Stevie

    Bah!

    How do you reconcile "outside of the slow-moving parking arena" with citing a City of New York report?

    Anyone who has been mad enough to drive into NYC can attest to the fact that the place is one giant parking lot. Should anyone discover a quick route from somewhere to somewhere else, hidden spy cameras spot the increase in traffic flow and teams are dispatched to dig up some of the one way streets and double park ten ton trucks in the rest.

  17. Shao

    "at any given moment, a woman is likely to be using her whole brain while a man is using half of his"

    ........that's bloody efficient if I do say so myself! :)

  18. SirDigalot

    SWMBO

    does not drive much any more, she always has some excuse, so it is down to me to chauffeur her about the place... fine I guess.

    however...

    she insists on being exactly like hyacinth bucket from keeping up appearances

    they are stopping

    mind that car/sheep/cow/house/object that is far far away

    don't drive so fast

    don't drive so slow

    I hate your driving..

    that and the invisible brake pedal, or the clutching handles etc when she gets startled by something I saw ages ago.

    when (eventually) she drives no matter how bad, I am sitting there silent, sometimes due to abject fear sometimes because I have already run through the possible combinations of conversations that would be said and the resulting lowering in quality of life on my part for saying them.

    SWMBO's mothering unit also was so proud at her driving skills despite managing to knock of wing mirrors in the garage ( drivers side mirrors) then blaming someone in the local store parking lot ( there was a neat mirror height dent in the garage frame!)

    got really offended when I mentioned that just because you have been driving for 30 or 40 years does NOT mean you have been driving well or even correctly for any of that time.

    the only multitasking I do these days is finishing a beer, while getting a new one from the fridge... and it is about all I need to think about really.

    though I must say, if men are so crap at multitasking, how do they drive exactly? especially if the consensus is that they are better drivers, last time I looked even in a regular automatic, you have to do multiple things at once, if women were so superior then they certainly would be much better at driving then men

  19. armster

    This was a New York study

    If you are really confused about the 80% of pedestrians in New York being run over by male drivers, you have never seen New York: 90% of cars are cabs, and 98% of cab drivers are male. (O.K. I just made up those numbers, but it sure feels that way). I am shocked that 20% of pedestrians in NY are run over by women....

  20. phil dude
    Boffin

    and now some biology....

    I browsed the paper. I had to get to it behind a paywall, so it must be hot off the press....

    From mammalian biology, all mammals are female unless they respond to androgenic hormones.

    Female body type != XX about 1in 100,000 times (hard to collect stats on this).

    It would have been more interesting if they had taken measurements of the sex hormones and correlated those with "connection analyses" since the negative control already exists (XY, andogren insensitive, female body type...).

    I wonder if the study was done blind, did the researchers just get de-identified data?

    Sorry for being the cynical scientist, but studies as complicated as this will have all sorts of misinformation read into them...

    P.

    P.

  21. chris lively

    The researchers, as they are normally do, made at least one unjustified claim. Namely, the reasoning behind why men drive and women are passengers.

    It has nothing at all to do with the stated reasons. Rather, women ride because they are far more manipulative then men are and are much better at getting others to do things for them. A man prefers to take "control". A women prefers to retain control while letting the man believe he has any at all.

    Notice how women have historically been in control of family finances while staying at home letting the man do the work.

  22. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Joke

    Not fair!

    Of course the women in this study could carry out more tasks than the men: there were 521 women, and only 428 blokes!

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. EnidPicklewater

    This was addressed to the Daily Mail, but if the shoe fits....

    Oh, and there's video to go with.

    http://www.upworthy.com/an-awful-tabloid-decided-to-review-her-lady-parts-instead-of-her-music-so-she-responded-awesome?c=ufb2

    Lyrics:

    dear daily mail,

    it has come to my recent attention

    that me recent appearance at glastonbury festivals kindly received a mention

    i was doing a number of things on that stage up to and including singing songs (like you do…)

    but you chose to ignore that and instead you published a feature review of my boob

    dear daily mail,

    there’s a thing called a search engine: use it!

    if you’d googled my tits in advance you’d have found that your photos are hardly exclusive

    in addition you state that my breast had escaped from my bra like a thief on the run

    you do you know that it wasn’t attempting to just take in the RARE british sun?

    dear daily mail,

    it’s so sad what you tabloids are doing

    your focus on debasing women’s appearances ruins our species of humans

    but a rag is a rag and far be it from me to go censoring anyone OH NO

    it appears that my entire body is currently trying to escape this kimono….

    dear daily mail,

    you misogynist pile of twats

    i’m tired of these baby bumps, vadge flashes, muffintops

    where are the newsworthy COCKS?

    if iggy or jagger or bowie go topless the news barely causes a ripple

    blah blah blah feminist blah blah blah gender shit blah blah blah

    OH MY GOD NIPPLE

    dear daily mail,

    you will never write about this night

    i know that because i’ve addressed you directly i’ve made myself no fun to fight

    but thanks to the internet people all over the world can enjoy this discourse

    and commune with a roomful of people in london who aren’t drinking kool-aid like yours

    and though there be millions of people who’ll accept the cultural bar where you have it at

    there are plenty of others who’re perfectly willing to see breasts in their natural habitat

    i keenly anticipate your highly literate coverage of upcoming tours

    dear daily mail,

    UP YOURS.

  25. Parax

    What we've all known for a long time.

    The diagrams seem to show that men's brains are wired back-to-front and women's brains have all their wires crossed....

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