350 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



THE ABILITY OF MEN AND WOMEN TO JUDGE 

 INTELLIGENCE 



L. W. Webb, Northwestern" University 



The problem investigated in this study is the relative 

 values of the judgments of men and women in rating the 

 intelligence of the same people- 

 There were one hundred four students in one of my 

 classes, fifty-three men and fifty-one women. The names 

 were printed and sent to the faculty with the following 

 instructions : 



"Consider all the students whom you know. Divide 

 them into ten groups basing your judgment upon their 

 intellectual ability ; the students of the highest ability to 

 be in group ten, the next highest in group nine, and so 

 on to the poorest students who will be in group one. 

 Will you look over the following list of students ; in the 

 column, Rank, place opposite each student's name the 

 number from ten to one according to which group you 

 think he belongs as per the ten relative intellectual 

 groups mentioned above. ' ' 



The students employed the same method in judging the 

 intelligence of one another. The purpose of the project 

 was fully explained to the students and they were urged 

 to rate only those students who were well known to them. 

 Three intelligence tests were given to the students: 

 Army Alpha and two tests devised by Thurstone labeled 

 A and B. The complete scholastic record of each stu- 

 dent was secured from the Registrar's office. Fifty 

 members of the faculty rated the students. However, 

 only eighty-two students were judged by the faculty 

 while ninety-seven were rated by the students. Forty- 

 one men and forty-one women were rated by the faculty. 

 The men students judged thirty-two women as against 

 fifty men; women passed judgment on the intelligence of 

 forty-four women and thirty-five men. The rating of no 

 student was used unless he was graded by at least three 

 people. The range of the number of judgments on each 

 student was, in the case of the faculty, 3 to 15, while that 

 of the students was from 3 to 68 ; the average number of 

 ratings per student in the former instance was 6 ; in the 



