cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10852021
A team of psychologists, social scientists, philosophers and evolutionary researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. has found evidence suggesting that the slight advantage males have in navigation ability is likely due to differences in the ways male and female children are raised.
In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes how they studied navigational skills in multiple species to find out if there might be an evolutionary basis for one gender or the other having better skills.
What I have wondered is do people who grow up in places where the streets are more or less in a grid end up with a different sense of direction to those who grew up in a place where old walking paths were just paved over, creating more random street layouts?
Can imagine. My town has a spiderweb structure for big roads and only a few railway crossings. Often the shortest route is counter intuitive. Be it by bus, car or bike.
tl;dr:
They suggest this indicates that rather than such skills coming about via evolution, it is more likely due to cultural differences, such as males being taught to navigate while females are not.
The researchers state that in most modern societies, boys tend to roam farther from home than girls, due to many factors, including fewer constraints and personal safety issues. Due to behavioral issues, boys are much more often encouraged to play outside, where their playmaking can lead them to roam to places far from home. Quite often such activities are conducted with male peers, allowing the group as a whole to improve their navigational skills. T
