Gastartikel Richard Haier is an American psychologist working on human intelligence and he ended up the women in science session at the EMBO meeting with the question – would you take a pill to become more intelligent?
Haier showed us how one can measure human intelligence, how different areas of the brain seem to be activated during problem solving, how men and women activate different areas of the brain, and how women are just not as good in science as men. And he did all of this in a room full of women scientists – applause.
As you can imagine, there was and there still is a lot of controversy in many of these issues. On the one hand, people like Richard Haier believe that there are biological differences that justify the lack of women in higher positions in scientific areas. On the other hand, people like Janet Hyde have shown that differences in cognitive skills between men and women do not exist and that culture explains the gap observed in scientific jobs. What to believe?
As a woman, I tend to favor the cultural hypothesis – traditional gender roles avoid women being as successful as men. What is your opinion on this? And what if there was a pill to become more intelligent, would you take it? Would you give it to your children?
Think about it!
| Adriana Goncalves ist Gastbloggerin vom EMBO-Meeting |  |
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