It is research that is guaranteed to delight men - and infuriate the women in their lives. A controversial new study has claimed that men really are more intelligent than women.

The study concluded that men's IQs are almost four points higher than women's.

British-born researcher John Philippe Rushton, who previously created a furore by suggesting intelligence is influenced by race, says the finding could explain why so few women make it to the top in the workplace.

He claims the 'glass ceiling' phenomenon is probably due to inferior intelligence, rather than discrimination or lack of opportunity.

The University of Western Ontario psychologist reached his conclusion after scrutinizing the results of university aptitude tests taken by 100,000 students aged 17 and 18 of both sexes.

A focus on a factors such as the ability to quickly grasp a complex concept, verbal reasoning skills and creativity - some of the key ingredients of intelligence - revealed the male teenagers had IQs that were an average of 3.63 points higher. The average person has an IQ of around 100.

The findings, which held true for all classes and levels of parental education, overturn a 100 year consensus that men and women average the same in general mental ability. They also conflict with evidence that girls do better in school exams than boys.

But Prof Rushton, who was born in Bournemouth and obtained his doctorate in social psychology from the London School of Economics, argues that the faster maturing of girls leads to them outshining boys in the classroom.

這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果一定會(huì)讓男人高興，惹女人生氣。一項(xiàng)具有爭(zhēng)議的最新研究表明，男人確實(shí)比女人聰明。

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，男人的智商比女人高四分。

英國籍研究員約翰·菲利普·魯什頓此前提出的"智商受到種族影響"的觀點(diǎn)一時(shí)引發(fā)眾怒，他說，這項(xiàng)最新研究結(jié)果可以解釋為什么很少有女性能成為職場(chǎng)精英。

他說，造成這種"玻璃天花板"現(xiàn)象的原因可能是由于女性的智商不及男性，并不是性別歧視或缺少機(jī)會(huì)。

這位西安大略大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家對(duì)10萬名17至18歲的男女學(xué)生進(jìn)行了大學(xué)智力測(cè)試，他在分析測(cè)試結(jié)果后得出了這個(gè)結(jié)論。

此項(xiàng)測(cè)試著重對(duì)學(xué)生快速理解復(fù)雜概念、語言推理能力和創(chuàng)造力等幾項(xiàng)智力指標(biāo)進(jìn)行了考察。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，男學(xué)生的智商平均高出3.63分。普通人的智商水平在100分左右。

這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果適用于各類人群和各個(gè)年齡階段，同時(shí)推翻了長(zhǎng)期以來認(rèn)為"男女智力相當(dāng)"的普遍觀點(diǎn)。此外，這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果和女孩的考試成績(jī)總比男孩好的事實(shí)相矛盾。

魯什頓教授他說，女孩比男孩學(xué)習(xí)好是因?yàn)榕�孩比男孩成熟得早。魯什頓教授出生在伯恩茅斯鎮(zhèn)，在倫敦經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院獲得了社會(huì)心理學(xué)博士學(xué)位。

 Vocabulary:

glass ceiling :玻璃天花板；是指在公司企業(yè)和機(jī)關(guān)團(tuán)體中，限制某些人口群體（女性、少數(shù)民族）晉升到高級(jí)職位的障礙。正如玻璃一樣，這個(gè)障礙雖然不是明文規(guī)定的，但卻是實(shí)實(shí)在在存在著的。