Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article on: SEX DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL ABILITY by David C. Geary This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be current BBS Associates or nominated by a current BBS Associate. 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An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by anonymous ftp (or gopher or world-wide-web) according to the instructions that follow after the abstract. ____________________________________________________________________ SEXUAL SELECTION AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL ABILITIES David C. Geary Department of Psychology 210 McAlester Hall University of Missouri at Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 psycorie(a)mizzou1.missouri.edu KEYWORDS: sexual selection, sex differences, mathematical ability, spatial ability, sex-role stereotypes, social style ABSTRACT: The principles of sexual selection were used as an organizing framework for interpreting cross-national patterns of sex differences in mathematical abilities. Cross-national studies suggest that there are no sex differences in biologically primary mathematical abilities, that is, for those mathematical abilities that are found pan-culturally, in nonhuman primates, and show moderate heritability estimates. Sex differences in several biologically secondary mathematical domains (i.e., those that emerge primarily in school) are found throughout the industrialized world. In particular, males consistently outperform females in the solving of mathematical word problems and in geometry. Sexual selection and any associated proximate mechanisms (e.g., sex hormones) appear to influence these sex differences in mathematical performance indirectly. First, sexual selection appears to have resulted in the greater elaboration of the neurocognitive systems that support navigation in 3-dimensional space in males than in females. Knowledge implicit in these systems appears to reflect an understanding of basic Euclidean geometry, and thus appears to be one source of the male advantage in geometry. Males also co-opt these spatial systems in problem-solving situations more readily than females, which provides males with an advantage in word problems and geometry. Moreover, sex differences in social styles and interests, which also appear to be related, in part, to sexual selection, result in sex differences in engagement in mathematics-related activities, which further increases the male advantage in certain mathematical domains. A model that integrates these biological influences with sociocultural influences on the sex differences in mathematical performance is presented. -------------------------------------------------------------- To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from ftp.princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is bbs.geary). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft. 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