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We might think women are not as adept as men at wielding heavy tools, like say, hammers, according to popular stereotypes.
Turns out that women may have a leg up when it comes to hammering in certain situations. This was announced at the recent Experimental Biology annual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
Scientists measured the accuracy and force of men and women’s blows to a metal plate. They also tested their hammer style in rooms that were either brightly lit or pitch dark. (Glow-in-the-dark stickers marked the targets.)
Indeed they found that men struck twice as hard as the women. But women were 25 percent more accurate than men in well-lit conditions. Surprisingly both sexes were better than expected at hammering in the dark, although men had an advantage, with about 10 percent higher accuracy.
The researchers theorize that maybe men and women inherently use different strategies, putting more emphasis on either force or accuracy, respectively. But these are preliminary results. They intend to do further studies with larger sample sizes in different conditions.
But for now that old stereotype might need to be retooled.
—Christie Nicholson
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19 Comments
Add CommentWow, talk about a significant advancement of science!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis headline is partially what is wrong with science reporting. why isn't it "women more accurate with a hammer than men"? better is totally subjective. how do you define "better"? accuracy? strength of the hit? how quickly a nail can be driven into the wood? personally i prefer the last one. usually the whole point of using a hammer is to drive in a nail (not always mind you but very often). the driving in a nail would also combine the strength and accuracy into the measurement. you can be as accurate as you want, but if you don't hit it hard enough it will a long, long time to drive the nail home. in my experience when you try to hit anything as hard as you possibly can you are invariably less accurate. if your accuracy is poor enough it will not matter how hard you hit a nail it would take a long, long time to drive it home. when a study is conducted that combines accuracy and strength of hit maybe science reporters will be able to realistically use the headline you chose to use this time. don't kid yourself using sensational but inaccurate headline diminishes their effectiveness. i now distrust sciam's headlines a bit more now and this is the first time i've visited your site after getting a tweet. i'll be that much less likely to do that in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis headline is partially what is wrong with science reporting. why isn't it "women more accurate with a hammer than men"? better is totally subjective. how do you define "better"? accuracy? strength of the hit? how quickly a nail can be driven into the wood? personally i prefer the last one. usually the whole point of using a hammer is to drive in a nail (not always mind you but very often). the driving in a nail would also combine the strength and accuracy into the measurement. you can be as accurate as you want, but if you don't hit it hard enough it will a long, long time to drive the nail home. in my experience when you try to hit anything as hard as you possibly can you are invariably less accurate. if your accuracy is poor enough it will not matter how hard you hit a nail it would take a long, long time to drive it home. when a study is conducted that combines accuracy and strength of hit maybe science reporters will be able to realistically use the headline you chose to use this time. don't kid yourself using sensational but inaccurate headline diminishes their effectiveness. i now distrust sciam's headlines a bit more now and this is the first time i've visited your site after getting a tweet. i'll be that much less likely to do that in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm not quite sure how i got the same comment posted twice, but i wish i could delete one of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@FRANKIEMOUSE -- "this headline is partially what is wrong with science reporting" -- Agreed -- this is hit-mongering, plain and simple. The headline is entirely meaningless and only meant to get people to click on the article. If you read a little bit further in, they say that men hit the nail twice as hard, showing that the men in the study were STILL 25% more efficient at hammering in nails than the women were (and even more so in the dark). Not that a result either way proves anything, the study itself is fairly silly and meaningless if you ask me. My aim is not to be a misogynist and claim that somehow this proves that men are better than women (I have to say as a man, if anything, the opposite is true), just to say that the title of article is (almost certainly intentionally) misleading and (certainly intentionally) sensationalist. I am ashamed to see the scientific press using the same low tactics as CNN and Fox News, but I am frankly not surprised...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Iamorpa - LOL, so true.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho ACTUALLY studies this?! This is the most useless study I can think of except for maybe "who can pick up more cheerios with a knife, men or women?". This is a waste of time and energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisignore Iamorpa. The comments above actually clairfy the results of the study.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIgnore Iamorpa. The first comments clarify the study. Plus, it would appear that Iamorpa said that the first comments are the only ones worth looking at if you change your comment view from newest to oldest.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyways, did they take into account that the women in the study may have little or no experience with hammers (or any kind of tools) and thus the women are putting more emphasis on accuracy. I remember when I was little I would worry more about my accuracy when driving nails with a hammer, then the strength of my blow. As I gained experience with the hammer, I learned that a little accuracy can be sacrificed for a great increase in the strength of the blow.
Did this study tell the people participating that they were driving the nail/target or simply hitting it? If they were simply hitting it, then how fast someone could drive the nail would not be relevant and this study would not accurately model real world applications.
@calevenice: agreed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Iamorpa: Actually, your is the only comment here not worth reading. What, are you against science or something? Maybe try a different website. ;)
Why this is called "science" is beyond me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe subtitle is couched in "certain conditions" and " may have a leg up" cliche's.
Was everyone told to strike hard?
Were they told accuracy was the goal?
What is missing from this article is more important than the fluff it reports.
But guys make better Axe Murderers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a much better Science site try:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.sciencedaily.com/
I wonder if Christians are better at hammering than Jews and Muslims?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisREFERENCES, please! When you report on a study, at least actually provide the names of the study and the researchers. Is that too much to ask?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the record, Dr. Duncan J. Irschick (professor), Suellen Almeida (undergrad research tech), and Justin Henningsen (PhD student) from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have so far completed two papers in this project. You can read presentations on both for free:
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/irschick/Hammering%20research.html
Soccerdad- Somebody has to study this. Hammering and other tool use is a significant contribution the economy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore immediately, though, we have a professor helping his students to learn about science and to advance their education.
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/irschick/Hammering%20research.html
So, one of the conclusions we can draw is that men have more accuracy when hammering in poorly lit or dark conditions. Now that is something for men to brag about!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrankiehouse, I agree with you
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, I miss Christie Nicholson! My favourite voice !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this