STATS CAN LIE .... DEPENDING ON HOW THEY ARE REPORTED

 So I'm watching Good Morning America (ABC) and they bring up a study that looks at how men vs. women follow driving directions given to them ... either written down or told to them.

Amazingly, the study found that men were able to navigate a new city better than women.

The study concluded that it is because men are encouraged to go outside more, thus making them better at "mapping" out their surroundings better.

I think they are WRONG -- I'd like to see exactly how the instructions were given.

Men tend to like instructions with street names, distances, compass directions (N, S, E, W), etc. things that have nothing to do wih the world around them, really.
While Women tend to go by landmarks ... Turn left at the mailbox, right at the Starbucks, etc. ... they simply are more aware of the world around them.

They did not go over anything about the directions and how they were given.
The study was done at the University of Illionios - Champaign.

The directions were for roads/streets in a real city ... but no mention of how familiar the person was with the city used.

After all -- if you drive in a city every day, you will know the streets much better than if you have not driven in the city very long.

I can tell you how to get to just about anyplace in the city where I've lived the last 20 years, but I cannot tell you how to get around diddly where I used to live in Minneapolis - not because I don't remember, but because they have majorly changed the steet layouts/traffic flow since I was there last.
You should have heard me trying to give directions to my son just 10 years after I stopped working in the city so he could take a tour of the U of Mn where I had gone graduated from ... he wound up in downtown, not at the U.  Why? because they totally changed the way ONE street  wrapped around.

Its little things like that which throw people off.  So if you are familiar with a city -- say Chicago -- and drive through there quite a bit, you will know the majority of the alternate routes.

Women are also more willing to admit when they are lost ... men simply call it "alternate destinations" or "unplanned adventures" ... my father used to call it "taking a Sunday Drive" or he'd say "Let's go for a drive" which always meant he wanted to go somewhere that he wasn't quite sure of, and needed someone to blame if/when he got lost.

The study said that women tend to go farther from their home than men, but they struggled more.  You know why?? Un familiar landmarks! but they didn't say that.

The take away from the study is that kids need to get out more.

WHAT????

We've heard this since I was a kid ... beofre home video games, before home computers were a big thing, when your friends were just down the street, not on the other side of town where you have to be driven to play.

Oh My God -- remember bicycles for kids?? We never had helmets or joint gaurds == we'd take a spill, go home and get a ban-aid slapped on, and we'd be right back out there again.

Oh I can feel a tangent coming on!!!