Sex and Culture Differences in Perceptions of Estimated Multiple Intelligence for Self and Family

Abstract

In all, 212 British and 154 Iranian students estimated their own, their parents’, and their siblings’scores on the Gardner (1983) seven multiple intelligences. Men tended to rate their own mathematical and spatial intelligence higher than did women. Iranian students thought they themselves had lower mathematical but higher spatial, musical, and intrapersonal intelligence compared with British students The Iranians rated their fathers’ mathematical and spatial IQs lower but their interpersonal and intrapersonal IQs higher than did British students. The Iranians rated their mothers’ IQs significantly lower than did the British on six of the seven scales. Results for siblings showed far fewer gender and interaction effects but many effects of culture, particularly for first brothers. Iranians rated the intelligence of their first brothers higher than did the British on six of the seven scales. Iranians tended to be more in favor of tests and more willing to acknowledge race and gender differences.