提升IQ適應社會 女性智商首次高於男性

It is a finding certain to be hotly disputed – at least among half the population. According to the latest research, women are brighter than men.
這個發現肯定會引起社會各界的熱議，至少會有一半的人蔘與其中。根據最新的調查，女性開始比男性聰明瞭。

For the first time in IQ testing, psychologists have found that female scores have risen above those of men.
這是心理學家首次發現，在IQ測試中發現女性的分數高於男性。

Since IQ testing began a century ago, women have been as much as five points behind, leading psychologists to suggest embedded genetic differences.
自100多年前IQ測試誕生開始以來，女性的平均分數總比男性低5分，這種情況也讓心理學家認爲這由男女基因不同導致。

But that gap has been narrowing in recent years and this year women have moved ahead, according to James Flynn, a world-renowned authority on IQ tests.
但是近幾年男女的差距正逐年縮小，而根據IQ測試知名權威專家James Flynn的觀點，女性已經開始處於領先地位。

‘In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster,’ said Mr Flynn. ‘This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.’
“在過去100年中，男性和女性的IQ都出現了不同程度的提高，但女性的提高速度顯然更快。”James Flynn表示。人類的IQ提高，是伴隨着社會的不斷髮展而必然出現的結果，“現代世界越來越複雜，人類的大腦需要通過提高IQ來適應這一變化。”

One possible explanation is that women’s lives have become more demanding as they multitask between raising a family and doing a job.
一個合理的解釋是女性的生活要求越來越高，因爲她們需要同時處理工作與家庭的各種事務。

Another is that women have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men and are only now realising it.
而另一個解釋則認爲女性自身擁有着更高的智商潛能，只是人們現在才意識到而已。

Mr Flynn, who will publish his findings in a book, said more data was needed to explain the trend. ‘The full effect of modernity on women is only just emerging,’ he added.
Flynn將在他的書中發表這個發現，但是仍然需要更多的數據來支持此項發現。“現代化對於女性的影響只是剛剛開始而已。”他補充道。

He collated IQ examination results from countries in western Europe and from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia. These showed that in westernised countries the gap in scores between men and women had become minimal.
他對西歐、美國、加拿大、新西蘭、阿根廷、愛沙尼亞等多個國家的測試結果進行對比分析。結果表明在西方國家男女分數的差距正在減少。

The data for making exact comparisons was sparser and could be carried out for only a handful of countries. It included Australia, where male and female IQs were found to be almost identical. In New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina, women scored marginally more than men.
但是能體現這一現象的數據還不夠充分，僅有幾個國家存在這樣的情況。包括澳大利亞在內的一些國家發現男女的IQ測試中的表現旗鼓相當。而在新西蘭，愛沙尼亞和阿根廷則發現女性的得分已經開始高於男性。

Mr Flynn said: ‘As the world gets more complex, and living in it demands more abstract thought, so people are adapting.’
Flynn說：“世界開始變得越來越複雜，而我們的生活也需要運用更多的抽象思維，所以人們正在漸漸適應。”

He added: ‘I suspect that the same trends are happening in Britain, too, although the data is too sparse to be sure.'
他又補充道：“我也懷疑同樣的趨勢正發生在英國，但是數據量還不足以證明是否如此。”