Men are better navigators than women—but for this unfortunate reason

In countries where women are discriminated against more, men have better navigational skills, BBC News reports. Researchers analyzed data from thousands of people in 57 different countries who played a computer game that records people’s sense of direction. They compared the findings to data from The Global Gender Gap Report, in which the World Economic Forum analyzes gender gaps in various countries based on four key areas. The team found that in countries where there is less equality between genders in regard to economic and political opportunities, education, and health, men had better navigational skills than women. In countries where women do not have the same opportunities as men, they may not be able to hone their navigational skills as well as women in other areas, the researchers report in Current Biology. The study also found that people in Denmark, Finland, and Norway—regardless of their sex—are the best navigators and that people in wealthier countries also tend to have great spatial abilities.

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