I'm skeptical of the 'common knowledge' research that suggests men are better at spatial reasoning than women due to brain differences [1], in fact we should be careful with any assumptions about differences in brain structure dictating behavioral differences. In the past people thought differences in weight of the brain indicated intelligence, and this is clearly nonsense; likewise modern observable sex differences [2] in the structure of the brain cannot be assumed to produce observable behavioral distinctions.
Although we like to segregate traits into masculine and feminine, overlap is incredibly strong on any given psychological task measured. Go ahead and peek at the effect size of any of the spatial reasoning differences studies and you'll see what I mean. Differences in effect size for height between men and women is about 1.4. Now if you look at the mental rotation task, the spatial task for which there is the largest effect size difference between men and women, you see an effect size of 0.56 [3]. There are a number of spatial reasoning tasks, not just the 3D transform task, and they all show smaller effect sizes, with many showing next to none. How about "tender mindedness", a typically female gendered trait? An effect size of -0.26 to -0.31 [4]. For almost all psychological characteristics your sex really is not an effective predictor. What about the structural differences? The 'sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain' study showed an effect size of 0.48. Here's a fun tool to visualize effect sizes https://rpsychologist.com/d3/cohend/
Contingency also matters- if you say women are more X and men are more Y, which kind of men and in which situation are you referring? Women are better at cognitive empathy, men are better at mathematics, women are more anxious / neurotic and have lower self esteem are all questions that contain components of contingency. Women are only better at cognitive empathy than men when they've been reminded that they are [5], men aren't better at math across all American ethnicities [6], and women are more anxious / neurotic, except in certain countries where they're not (Japan, for example) or white American women are, while black women aren't [7].
There's a great quote from Cordelia Fine (who assembled a lot of this research) [8] on risk-taking, "So when we say instead, more accurately, not 'males are more risk taking', but some males, of some cultural backgrounds, from some populations are more risk taking, in some domains, in some contexts, but not others, than are some, but not all women. It no longer seemed so likely that we'll be able to compare the brains in women and men and from average differences between the groups identify the neural basis of greater male risk taking."
Although we like to segregate traits into masculine and feminine, overlap is incredibly strong on any given psychological task measured. Go ahead and peek at the effect size of any of the spatial reasoning differences studies and you'll see what I mean. Differences in effect size for height between men and women is about 1.4. Now if you look at the mental rotation task, the spatial task for which there is the largest effect size difference between men and women, you see an effect size of 0.56 [3]. There are a number of spatial reasoning tasks, not just the 3D transform task, and they all show smaller effect sizes, with many showing next to none. How about "tender mindedness", a typically female gendered trait? An effect size of -0.26 to -0.31 [4]. For almost all psychological characteristics your sex really is not an effective predictor. What about the structural differences? The 'sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain' study showed an effect size of 0.48. Here's a fun tool to visualize effect sizes https://rpsychologist.com/d3/cohend/
Contingency also matters- if you say women are more X and men are more Y, which kind of men and in which situation are you referring? Women are better at cognitive empathy, men are better at mathematics, women are more anxious / neurotic and have lower self esteem are all questions that contain components of contingency. Women are only better at cognitive empathy than men when they've been reminded that they are [5], men aren't better at math across all American ethnicities [6], and women are more anxious / neurotic, except in certain countries where they're not (Japan, for example) or white American women are, while black women aren't [7].
There's a great quote from Cordelia Fine (who assembled a lot of this research) [8] on risk-taking, "So when we say instead, more accurately, not 'males are more risk taking', but some males, of some cultural backgrounds, from some populations are more risk taking, in some domains, in some contexts, but not others, than are some, but not all women. It no longer seemed so likely that we'll be able to compare the brains in women and men and from average differences between the groups identify the neural basis of greater male risk taking."
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21876159 2. https://www.pnas.org/content/111/2/823 3. Voyer et al (1995) Psych Bull 4. Costa et al (2001) J. Pers Social Psych 5. Ickes et al (2000) Personal Relationships 6. Lindberg et al (2010) Psych Bull 7. Hyde (2014) Annual Review Psych 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEX9Usqdurs