ABSTRACT
In this chapter I review the latest research that has compared men and women on cognitive abilities and social domains. Sex differences in math ability have virtually disappeared, although sex differences in attitudes toward math persist. Sex differences in spatial skills are small, with the exception of the mental rotation task for which there are large sex differences in the direction of males that have remained unchanged over time. Sex differences in gender congruence of the stimuli and strategies may underlie this difference. Sex differences in verbal skills are small, with the exception of advantages for females in reading and writing. In terms of social domains, women report being more empathic than men, but observational and physiologic data are less clear. Women exhibit greater prosocial behavior than men, which contributes to sex differences in empathy. Women and men also have somewhat different approaches to morality. Men are more likely to be the perpetrators and victims of aggression, but even these sex differences depend on the kind of aggression and the situational circumstances. Sex differences in sexuality are mostly small, but typically in the direction of men having more permissive attitudes than women.
