Women: Good Drivers One Year, Bad Ones The Next

dodai — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:00:00 EST

A new study says gay men and straight women share a poor sense of direction and straight men are better drivers. Psychologists at the University of London employed a virtual-reality scenario in which volunteers had to swim through an underwater maze to find a hidden platform or explore an environment and find "rewards." The gays and the women didn't do too well! ("The results back earlier studies supporting the stereotype that women are poor navigators. Although women are more successful in tests requiring them to remember the position of objects, men consistently do better in tasks requiring navigation and uncovering hidden objects.")

One could argue that maybe gay men and straight women have social lives and therefore don't spend loads of time playing video games, and so are not as quick to navigate virtual reality as straight dudes. But whatever! The fun thing is this: An article on the study, titled "Straight Men Better Drivers", was published in The Sun today; but in February 2003 the paper printed a story called "Women Are Safer Drivers"; in November 2005, it featured a piece titled "Women Are Tops At Wheel"; and in March 2006, a story called "Women Are Better Drivers" (written by someone named Emma Parker Bowles) was published. So! While Dr. Qazi Rahman may have conducted a study that has him stating, "Women are going to take a lot longer to reach their destination, making more errors, taking wrong turns etc." we're pretty sure we could find a way to commit a moving violation should he step in front of our vehicle. We'll get our gays to help!

Women And Gay Men Are 'Worst Drivers' [Telegraph]
Straight Men Better Drivers [The Sun]
Related: Women Are Safer Drivers, Women Are Tops At Wheel, Women Are Better Drivers [The Sun]

Earlier: Women Drivers Don't Know How To Shift Gears, Start Cars, Or, For That Matter, Dress Themselves
Riding In Cars With Girls

Riding In Cars With Girls

Anna — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:31:00 EDT

There are lots of fallacies about women and driving. That they can't parallel park. That they can't handle manual transmissions (take it from us: they can, they do, and they like it). That they turn maps around when looking at maps for directions. (Okay, well, maybe sometimes). Oh, and that they don't really like cars at all. Anyway, researchers in the UK are reporting that women tend to do things like, you know, give their cars names and drive with both hands on the wheel because, unlike men, women "feel more comfortable expressing their feelings directly" and see their cars as "separate entities".

The study noted where one-handed drivers preferred to put their spare hand. It found that 46 per cent of men rested it on the gear stick. Just 31 per cent of women did this.

Translation: Women aren't as obsessed with phalluses. Wait, there's more:

But although only 27 per cent of men put their spare hand in their lap, 39 per cent of women did.

Yeah, you know why? Unlike men, women can actually diddle and drive at the same time. It's called multi-tasking!

Why Women Drive With Two Hands And Men With Only One [DailyMail]
Earlier: Why Don't More Women Love Cars [Jalopnik]
Women Drivers Don't Know How To Shift Gears, Start Cars, Or, For That Matter, Dress Themselves
One Problem With Last Night's Sopranos Finale

Jezebel: car talk

Women: Good Drivers One Year, Bad Ones The Next

Riding In Cars With Girls