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1 October 2014
Human Body & MindScience & Nature

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Sex ID

You've found an older version of the Sex ID test. Take the up-to-date version of the test, which has been changed to make it more enjoyable and easier to use.

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The test

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ collaborated with a team of psychologists to create Sex ID, which brings together a series of separate psychological tests related to brain sex differences for the first time.

Most scientists agree that men and women are of equal intelligence, but some believe that they may have differing mental strengths and weaknesses, on average. The reasons for these brain sex differences, if they exist, are not known, though there are a number of theories.

The main aim of this experiment is to further investigate existing theories about brain sex differences and to make new discoveries.

The scientists will study the anonymous test results to see if there are recognizable trends, which confirm or contradict current theories about brain sex differences. They will attempt to link test takers' answers to a series of questions with their performance on tasks thought to display sex differences.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ will use the scientists' analyses in a future television series about brain sex differences. People who have taken the Sex ID test cannot be linked to their results, as they are anonymous.

The scientists may use the data gathered during Sex ID in their research.

The experts

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ collaborated with the following experimental psychologists and their laboratory staff members to create the Sex ID test:

(The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external websites.)

Dr Simon Baron-Cohen

Dr Richard Lippa

Dr John Manning

Prof David Perrett

Dr Stian Reimers

Other experts were consulted about licensing agreements for the psychological tests in Sex ID and as part of the research process.

The questions

The scientists behind Sex ID are asking test takers a series of questions, some of which cover personal or sexual topics. People are free to skip any question that makes them feel uncomfortable.

All of the questions have been carefully thought through and were included because they may help researchers learn more about brain sex differences. Scientists will try to link test takers' responses to their performance on a variety of tasks included in the experiment.

For example, they are interested to know how test takers' finger measurements relate to the number of brothers and sisters they had. There is a theory that the amount of testosterone we are exposed to in our mothers' wombs relates to the ration of the length of our index finger to the ring finger – our digit ratio. Furthermore, it's thought that prenatal testosterone may increase or decrease systematically with each male child a woman has. Dr John Manning is particularly interested to learn if there is a link between testosterone and birth order. That's why we ask test takers to measure their fingers and to tell us about their families.

The tasks

All of the activities in Sex ID are identical to, or similar to, tests used in published, peer-reviewed papers. Some scientists believe that men and women perform differently on these tasks.

Most scientists agree that men and women are of equal intelligence, but some believe that they may have differing mental strengths and weaknesses, on average. The reasons for these differences, if they exist, are not known, though there are a number of theories. One of the aims of the Sex ID test is to test some of these theories.

Back to Sex ID

Back to Sex ID



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