How Different Are Male and Female Brains?
The May/June 2010 issue of Scientific American Mind magazine is a special issue devoted to male vs. female brains, “His Brain / Her Brain: How We’re Different.” The cover shows a face with a split image, a man on the left and a woman on the right. Clearly men and women think very differently—right? Having a background in psychology, I am always amused to read magazine articles and books that promise to reveal all the fascinating ways that people’s brains are different—yet (if the piece was written by an actual expert) sooner or later the author admits that there’s really not much difference between normal brains. Men, women, left-brainers, right-brainers, Asians, Africans, we are all pretty much the same. This, of course, is a rather mundane truth that does not help sell books and magazines, so typically this boring caveat is immediately glossed over in favor of more sensationalized and speculative story, and mountains are made out of molehills. For example, in an article on gender dif
