Please don't try anything you are about to see at home.
We're what you call experts.
On this controversial episode of "Mythbusters,"
it's all out war.
Today is the day the battle of the sexes will be won.
Go ladies, go ladies.
by testing five age-old, gender based cliches.
First up,
the number one cause of heated marital discourse,
women can't drive.
I can tell the way they're driving, it's probably a woman.
Next!
Burn, baby, burn. Are men the master chefs?
That's just raw.
Who's better at reading emotions?
It is flirty emotion.
Is map reading more suited to the minds of men?
Straight by...okay, we have to stop at somewhere. Stop.
And packing the car,
is it a men's world?
You forgot the baby, the baby?
That's not a good fairwell for the eggs.
Who are the "Mythbusters"?
Adam Savage,
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
and Jamie Heinaman.
We're going to have an adventure.
Between them, more than 30 years special effects experience.
Together with Tory Belleci,
Ah, I love challange.
Grant Imahara
and Kari Byron.
Let's do it.
They don't just tell the myths,
they put them to the test!
Okay, come on.
- Do we really have to do this? - Yes.
Why exactly?
Because we're doing an entire episode on men versus women,
a battle of the sexes, a battle we are winning.
Hold on, you're already winning?
Last season we did men versus women for pain tolerance,
we kicked your butts.
Okay, if you say so. Since it is a competition.
We're going to be testing all sorts of cliches
like navigating is best done by --
men.
- Driving. - Men.
- Grilling. - Men.
Arrogance?
All right, well, before we get started,
let's see if we can put science into this.
Something we are also very good at.
It is a fact there are a few physiological differences
between male and female brains
that may lead to advantages on certain types of tests.
For example, the circuitry for spacial awareness
is marginally faster in men,
and women have slightly larger language setters.
But in the real world gender wars,
do these neurological subtleties lead to actual advantages.
Well, there's only one way to find out.
In a pitched battle of the sexes,
the team is going to test all five of them.
And kicking off the most controversial episode in "Mythbusters" history,
it is a doozy.
We don't have to armor ourselves for this one, do we?
Luckily, no.
So, for us, what's first?
Well, it's driving. Men or women, who's better?
I can already hear people yelling at their televisions right now.
How do you want to test it?
Well, I think it is pretty straightforward.
We get ten men, ten women, a licensed driving instructor,
put them on a EVOC course and see who is better.
Alright, and to eliminate bias,
we should make sure that
the driving instructor doesn't know the gender of the person
he is tesing at any given moment.
Sounds like a good idea.
Alright, let's bring on the controversy.
It is a controversy as old as the automobile itself.
Supposedly, women and driving just don't mix.
But insurance data suggests
that it is men who are the real road risks.
- How am I doing? - A lot better than yesterday.
So, which is the wheel deal?
Well, we're back here at our favorite driving course,
the EVOC at the Alameda County Sheriff's department.
Just waiting for Adam. There he is.
Check out my new ride!
Nice.
So what we're going to do here is
to put an equal number of both male and female drivers
through a standard driving course
and see if we can tell which sex is better at driving!
It's very simple.
The concept may be simple,
but as Jamie learns with instructor Jack Sage,
the course is anything but.
This is a bird's eye view of the police training course
our test drivers will be tested upon.
And let me bringing for you, the key components.
We have accident avoidance.
This one is tricky.
K-turns.
Close quarter turnaround.
There is no rush on this.
Parallel parking.
Everybody's favoriate exercise.
Up to speed and a quick stop.
Then the forward slalom,
and the kicker, the reverse slalom.
Through out the course, Jack will be scoring the drivers.
They will start with 100 points.
But every time they hit a cone, break a speed limit, hesitate,
or fail to follow directions, they're gonna get penalized.
And then they're done.
And with that, it's time to meet the volunteers
who will be flying the flag for their entire gender.
Hi, everybody.
Thanks for coming to the Mythbusters driving school.
And after getting a run-down of the rule book.
You have seven minutes to complete the test.
The course speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
There in for a surprise.
Most importantly, it is vital your identity
and gender are invisible to our driving instructor.
You'll each be wearing this heavy yellow fire suit.
you are also will be wearing a balaclava that covers your head
and some mirrored ski goggles.
And finally, the gentlemen out there will be wearing
a pair of fake breasts.
Is everybody ready?
- Yes. - Okay, great.
It may seem odd that we're making people
wear balaclave and men wear these things,
but this is why we're doing it.
In theory, inspector Jack could be effected by people's gender
and mark them differently.
So by making them look all the same,
and not letting them talk,
we are removing any chance of bias.
Plus, it's funny.
But before contestant number one drives away,
Adam adds one more ingredient.
Don't forget to buckle up.
There's a magic interesting moment of getting driving tests.
And most people, if you ask them, tell you that they think
men break the speed limit, more than women, and drive faster.
Are men breaking the speed limit on our course
when we told them all clearly that the speed limit is 25 miles per hour?
This little black box is going to tell us.
Inside it is a piece of proprietary hardware.
If anybody breaks the speed limit of 25 miles per hour during the test,
we're going to know about it.
With the black box in place
and some convenient rain to make things that little bit harder,
cue volunteer No.1.
3, 2, 1, go.
Look at the green light.
First up is accident aviodance.
That seemed to go fairly smoothly.
Then it is onto the close quarter turns,
where a nudged cone breaks Adam's self-restraint.
Our driving instructor Jack has no idea of the gender of this driver.
But I can tell from the way they're driving, it's probably a woman.
I am totally kidding. I have no idea.
It is a woman. Okay, I'm really sorry.
Cause I didn't know that it was a woman when I said that.
I was just making a terrible joke.
She seems to be doing just fine.
Actually, she's doing better than fine,
because she sails through the rest of the course.
This might be the hardest part of the test
The reverse slalom.
Without any more mistakes,
and while she did break the speed limit,
hitting 27 miles an hour.
She comes away with a score of 88.
Um, finished.
Volunteer number two is a man.
3, 2, 1. Go.
Not that you can know.
I think my disguise is working because that was a guy,
and I really couldn't tell.
And like his female counterpart,
he breezes through the course.
Looks like a good parallel park.
with speed-
Oh, slow down there cowboy.
his only penalty.
Right on the money.
Volunteer three is also a man.
Go.
And despite a good start on the accident avoidance test.
Nice one.
It's not long since things start to go belly up.
Oh, that didn't look good.
It's worth noting this guy is not a novice driver.
We selected them based on a couple of criteria.
First is that, they have to have had
more than five years of driving experience.
The second one is that they can't be pros.
We're looking for the average Joe.
But this guy, he's just a bad driver.
Ain't that the truth.
After knocking over a cornucopia of cones,
and reaching a speed of 29 miles per hour.
This guy scraps in with a score of 54.
One, go.
And when the next woman scores an impressive 82,
Better than me.
in this first battle of the sexes,
the men have their backs to the wall.
Coming next on Mythbusters,
Afraid.
Jamie's human emotion firmware requires an upgrade.
The "Mythbusters" are tackling five of the most
contentious conflicts in the history of the battle of the sexes.
And first up for Kari, Grant and Tory,
it's all in the eyes.
So, we are testing the myth that
women are better at reading people's emotions than men.
Oh, this one is definitely ture.
I don't know, I think I am pretty good at it.
Well, there's a standard way to test this.
You take photos of people with emotions,
and show people just the eyes,
see if they can tell which emotion that person has emitted,
like anger, happiness, sadness, fear.
Perfect.
Let's take pictures of all five Mythbuster hosts
making different emotive faces.
Block everything but the eyes,
and see who can tell what's going on better, men or women.
Now, for this, we have got this photo booth here.
All five "Mythbusters" are gonna jump in here and channel five emotions.
Okay, here we go.
Happy.
Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, confusion.
We're going to take those pictures,
and cut off just the eyes.
Put those in front of men and women,
see if they can figure out
what emotion that we're trying to channel.
Unfortunately, there is an issue with one of the hosts.
Apparently I'm supposed to express a bunch of emotions, happy.
Unfortunately, what you see is what you get, sad.
I mean, I can distort my face in some kind of mimicry of
what I understand is that emotion.
Confused. That's about the best I can do.
So unfortunately because these are all the same,
we have to throw him out.
So, the team has the five emotional photos
of the four human hosts.
What next?
We bring in volunteers one by one,
project the pictures on our screen,
and see who is better at reading emotions,
men or women.
Cue the first male test subject.
And after Grant explains the setup,
it's down to business.
Ok, here is the first slide.
Looks like he is kind of anxious.
John answered anxious.
Correct answer here.
Not a great start, but he does get a few correct,
Fear.
and ends up with a reasonable score.
Out of a totall possible 17 emotions, you got 11.
That's pretty good.
We won't know how good until we have a comparison.
Cue the first female.
Happy?
Correct.
And from the getgo, it's clear her answers are faster.
Scared.
More instinctive.
Confused.
And more assured.
Angry.
Sad?
Oh, my god.
Go ladies, go ladies.
However, she does get four answers incorrect.
So it's not a complete wash for the guys.
- 13 points. - 13, that's really really good.
What we do know is we started strong.
And the next few subjects record lower scores.
You have a score of 8 points.
It's clearly a tough test.
6.
Six? I got five.
But as the data is gathered,
You got a score of ten points, well done.
one trend continues:
the responds time for the women is markedly quicker.
Happy.
Correct.
The women have been very quick to look at the picture
and come up with an answer right away,
whereas the men in general
have had a longer pause between answering.
Anger.
- Yes - Very good.
Nice work.
As the final few test subjects deliver their emotional verdicts,
the main pattern emerging
is that not only are the women faster,
they're also more accurate.
All right, Kari, this is it. The end of the final experiment.
What are the results?
Okay. So taking the average of the men,
we come up with the score of 9.6.
Alright, pretty good score for the men.
And the average for the women is
10.6.
So, looks like this is confirmed.
Women are better at reading emotions than men.
Yeah, not a landslide, but still confirmed.
Confirmed.
That's cool.
So it is first blood to the winner.
But with four myths still in the balance,
it is all the play for.
Is it really true that men make for better drivers than women.
Look out for the truck.
- What truck? - Behind the bus.
What bus?
Well, not if the second secret male was anything to go by.
Oh, that didn't look good.
But six tests later,
Go, go, go, go.
and it's all changed,
because three women have struggled
while three men have passed with flying colors,
meaning the average scores are now 80 for the guys,
and 70 for the gals.
In 3, 2, 1. Go.
There's a lever down there for the parking brake
right below the dash, just kind of pull it.
There you go.
Not a good sign when you leave the parking brake on.
The rest of the afternoon
speeds by in a blur of swerves, squeals-
Just from the sound of acceleration there,
I am going out on a limb saying that's a dude.
twists,
and turns.
That contestant was a little vigorous.
And what's suprsing is the speed data.
Now we're on the last contestant.
Before we crunch all of the numbers,
we have in fact teased out an interesting fact.
You may or may not ascribe to the belief
that men break the speed limit more than women.
And that's why we set a speed limit of
25 miles an hour on this course
trying fairy out wether or not that was true.
What we found is that seven out of nine male drivers
have gone over 25 miles an hour,
but nine out of ten of the female drivers have done the same.
Thus, even if this guy behind me
goes over 25 miles an hour,
the idea that men break the speed more than women is busted.
It is a confounding result that's made more surprising
when guy-ten stays under the limit.
And they are finish.
But what about the overall score results?
Well, after some quick number crunching, the data is in.
All right, dude, I'm dying to know.
What's the final tally that our number is give us.
Are men better drivers than women?
Well, for a while there the men had a strong lead,
but by the end of the test,
the women started to catch up.
They still didn't make it, though,
and the men won fair and square by about 8%.
I did not expect to get such a clear result.
Well, shall we head back home,
and start answering the angry e-mails now?
What are you going to do.
Controversial or not,
the scoreboard tells the tale. It is now all square.
Next!
On Mythbusters,
It's primal.
Do the guys really grill better than their gals?
Up next, the competition is about to heat up.
This one is going to be controversial.
Who is better at grilling, men or women?
Well, in this country at least,
there's absolutely a cultral bias that
outdoor grill is a men's domain.
On the other hand, at least at home,
the stereotype is that women do most of the cooking,
and makes sense that that experience will translate to the grill.
Well, sounds like we got a test.
Perfect.
Since the proverbial cave man
first rubbed two sticks together,
men have perceived fire as their domain.
But are they actually better at cooking on it
or is it another in a long list of self delusions?
To find out,
as our Australian friends would say,
it's time to fire up the body.
This is our grill lab.
We got four identical cooking stations,
ten men, ten women.
And they'll each be given one hour
to do the best job they can at grilling.
Each will be given the exact same number of ingredients
and asked to grill four separate things.
Vegetables, a chicken drum stick,
a hamburger medium rare and a steak medium rare.
The grilling will be assessed by a panel of judges.
This is a blind test which means
the judges will not know the gender of the people
that are preparing the food they're tasting.
Every piece of food will be assessed on three basic criteria.
Presentation, texture, and most importantly, taste.
Shall we start?
Let's bring it on.
Awesome.
And the starting point is control.
Give it a nice color finish.
Barbeque Hall of Famer
and guest judge Rick Gilbert prepares the four item menu
in order to give Adam and Jamie a perfect benchmark
in presentation, texture, and taste.
One thing people commonly do with burgers is that
they will take them, flip them over,
and give them that a little squish.
You don't want to do that.
It just moves the juices right out of the burger
and now that your mouth will never hit it.
Not worth it.
But aside from general tips on great grilling,
there are a few hard and fast rules.
Some things about grilling are subjective,
like appearance or seasoning.
But there's one big area of don't,
and that's over or undercooking.
With all types of food that you put on the grill,
if you overcook them,
they're gonna be dried out and flavorless.
If you undercook them, they're going to be raw.
In the case of chicken,
raw means you simply can't eat it.
Which means it is time to get grilling.
Cue our first set of willing lab rats.
Organized into random groups of four,
they'll cook for the allotted hour.
The judges will then be presented with four dishes.
mixed vegetables, chicken, steak and a burger,
without knowing the sex of the chef.
But Jamie thinks the men will come out on time.
It's kind of makes sense that men would be into grilling.
It involves fire, big slabs of meat, it is primal.
Let's find out. It's time to get to eating and judging.
Alrighty. Contestant number one.
I would call that well done.
The panel tuck in and assess each dish.
That is not bad.
Their comprehensive system scores each of the four dishes
in the three categories with the maximum score of 100.
I say that's a good steak.
That's largely in charge.
Absolutely.
And the first male test subject racks up a solid 51.3.
Our mark on our first female chef fails to match.
That's like the burger I used to fear that my mom would make.
A little bit dry?
Totally dry.
However, the advantage doesn't last
because the next guy severely compromises his score
by failing one of the four dishes completely.
Oh, dudes, I think we may have the first zero
in the meat category.
That's rare.
This here is four burgers,
each burnt crispy on the outside
and totally red red raw on the inside.
We can't even eat these.
It's an automatic zero. I am sorry.
I'd eat it.
Next!
With the next female chef serving up the perfect burger,
That's the perfect color. Little juice in there.
she nails an impressive and so far top scoring 62.4.
And it's game on.
Next!
As Adam Jamie and Rick chow down and churn out the scores
and several things become clear.
That is a darn tasty burger.
First, the quality of the dishes delivered to the judging table
varies hugely.
There is a terrible thing to do with the steak.
Second, are the test object freely acknowledge
the basis of the myth,
men do see the grill more often.
Certainly for me, my friends and my family,
the men do a lot more cooking than the women did.
Yeah, I grill a lot.
But I would say that my boy friend grills better than me.
He cooks it more often, and he gets the meal done
more percise than I do.
Third, as the final meals are tasted and judged,
That's not even questionable. That's just raw.
that additional grill experience
the men have is not reflected in the scores.
This person doesn't seem to have cooked before.
Burger for burger...
This is like a hamburger cooked by a vegetarian. Right here.
steak for steak--
That's an example of what a good steak is.
the women are matching the men.
That was delicious. Want to try some?
Ah, you can't. We're on TV. Sorry.
Rick, thanks so much for your help.
Pleasure. Thank you very much.
And with that, the last score was tallied and totalled.
And it is results time.
Pretty tasty?
Some of it was, some of it I might not feed to my dog.
What you think of the numbers?
The best score was had by men,
but then so was the lowest score.
Right. Women came in with an average score of 42,
men with an average of 46. That's mighty close.
That's close enough to mean that
there wasn't statistical difference.
Which means of course the myth that
men are definitely better than women in grilling
is totally busted.
Based on that test, it is busted.
So while the fire may well bring out the primeval urging men,
but they're no better than women
when it comes the cooking on it.
Do not try what you're about to see at home.
We are what you call experts.
Next up for Kari, Grant and Tory, is the fight of navigators.
OK, Next myth, men are better at navigating than women.
What? I'm a great navigator.
Apparently there's enough controversy that we need to test this myth.
What if we set up a scenario as if we were showed first.
We give a group of men, and a group of women a map.
And they have to take us from point A to point B.
We score them on who takes the shortest path,
but penalize them for lanky stops,
wrong turns, or get panicky directions.
I like it.
To find out if men make for better map readers,
the guys hid the road in style
I'm pretty sure I have no idea where we are.
before cruising down to the coast,
the start point for their map mayhem.
Nice location?
The ideal starting point.
We're about to start our experiment
to find out if the myth is true
that men are better navigators than women.
So, this is the plan.
We have 20 volunteers, 10 men, 10 women.
We are arming them only with a map
with our begining and ending points marked out.
Your map, your map.
Now, they're going to be in the passenger seat,
and Grant is going to drive.
OK, approaching Francisco boulevard, making a right turn.
They are gonna have to navigate us
from the start to finish completely with the map,
no smartphones or GPS.
Now, Tory and I will in the back seat with the score card.
We are going to penalize them for panicky directions,
unnecessary turns--
OK, executing the U-turn.
stopping for no reason
and we also going to penalize them for every half mile
over the minimum distance it takes
to get from point A to point B.
That's calculated about eight miles.
So, this should be a tricky test.
I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
Indeed, at the addition to our volunteers
being completely unfamiliar with the area,
the test is going to be a tough one
as the chosen of the point B
is decidedly difficult to find.
Most of the time when you go on a road trip
with your buddies, you're going somewhere fun.
Not on "Mythbusters." Here, we go to the water treatment plant.
Now, we are nostalgic because we do busting here,
but more importantly, it is hard to find on the map,
not many people know where it is.
It is almost exactly eight miles
from our start point in Pacifica,
and there are many different ways to get here.
Remember, the challenge is to get from A to B,
via the most direct route.
but with dozens of other potencial plots
and a dastardly one way system to boot,
there's a lot that could go wrong.
So, with drivers and scorers sitting pretty,
let the battle commence.
And first up is Agelina.
This is where we are.
Oh, my god.
This is where we are going.
Oh, wow. Oh, my god.
Like all contestants, she's allowed to study the map for 5 minutes
The water and...
before the test begins.
I think we should just make a left somewhere.
- All right. - First, possible left, let's go.
Okay.
And like all contestants,
she starts with a score of 100
that will be reduced for every mistake.
Wait. Why didn't you get on the freeway?
And it is not long before those mistakes
as the myth would suggest, start to mount up.
Staright, um...Okay. Keep going. Stay the...
With last minute directions and a general sense of hopelessness,
Angelina does the only sensible thing.
We have to stop somewhere. Stop.
Stopping, stopping.
She pulls over to try to get her bearings.
North Field Road. Was that North Field Road?
Ten minutes later, she thinks she found them.
Oh, it's before. We have to go back.
We have to go back.
Okay. Executing a U-turn.
After a stop and U-turn, her score already dropped to 75.
I could do it. I know it, because I am so close.
But it drops further on stop two.
So this is where...OK, stop.
Stopping.
And further again on U-turn two.
And by stop three.
Stop.
It's fair to say that this isn't going well.
She seems a little stressed out right now.
But after another five minutes pause,
Angelina finally gets back on track.
OMG, it's not looking good for the women.
And while she tries to upper the score
by using her feminine charm,
- You've been driving for a while? - Yes.
You look very young than that.
Oh, I like this.
It is clear that data point one is great news for men.
Angelina, we're here.
You did it in 11.8 miles.
After deductions for stopping to read the map three times,
three unnecessary turns and one panicky direction,
minus five points for every half mile over the minimum,
you got a total score of 25.
Wait. Did he drive well? Because he...
Oh, I see, you gonna blame him.
25 out of a possible 100
is not the start the ladies wanted.
Can man number one do any better?
All right, get in. Here is your map.
Well, in a word, no, because Chris--
somehow contrives to
map read less well than Angelina.
Not only does he stop once and U-turn twice,
he also gets told to back off by a security guard.
Sir you can't stop here.
Okay. Do you know where the sweage treatment plant is?
I'm sorry. Please move along.
In that case, I think we keep going, bust a U-turn.
OK, very good.
But what's really killing Chris's score is his mileage.
I think we're lost, Kari.
OK, I think you are probably right.
I've never been here before.
Because by the time he finally crushes the finish line,
Congratulations, Chris, you made it.
he's traveled a staggering 13.9 miles.
75% further than the shortest route.
So Chris just finished up and came away with a whopping 20 points.
20 points.
I think he was more concerned about his hair
than he was get into the final destination.
It's a dismal start for either sex.
But with 18 volunteers still to go,
the result is a long way off.
Next on Mythbusters,
are men better at packing a car than women?
Get set for all out war.
Because, the next battle of the sexes is controversial for sure.
What's next?
Packing the car.
You mean like to ship it?
No. For road trip,
you ever take a road trip?
No.
OK, suffice it to say, there's a myth out there
that when packing for a road trip, men are better at it than women.
And I think all we need to do is
prepare for a virtual road trip with slightly more luggage
than you can fit in the average car
and ask a bunch of men and a buch of women to pack it in
and see who wins.
OK, if you say so.
It's a classic gender based cliche
as old as vacations themselves.
Supposedly, as far as loading the luggage goes,
it is a man's world.
But is it really?
Today it is all about spacial awareness,
whether men or women can pack the car
more efficiently than the other sex.
This is one of the test platforms.
That is our other one.
Are we going to get started or what?
Yeah, let's do it.
To deal with, first, they need the luggage,
a complex 28 piece set that Adam and Jamie test load
to make sure it all fenced.
A delicate picture here.
As well as bulky items,
the packers have to secure several fragile items,
like eggs, a cake, and a cream pie,
as well as ensuring the comfort of the doll,
playing the part of a real baby
and three adults.
Then we drive through a predetermined course,
see whether there are any problems
like packages sliding around or things breaking.
With the driving course ready and a packing area built for two.
Because this is a contest, we don't want to allow anybody to
observe anybody else and sort of cheat,
so that's what this screen is about.
Next, we need a scoring system.
May I present your judges,
Ms Kari Byron
and Mr Jamie Franklin Hyneman
If you two would self quest yourselves,
we should start the first test.
Jamie and I are the judges.
We will be scoring at 100 points.
They'll be deductions for the quality of our pack,
depending on the packing of the car,
the volume of the items in there,
the neatness efficiency of the pack, comfortable of the passengers;
Adam will do a quick driving test
to see how things shift around,
and finally there are delicate items in the pack,
eggs, pies, will these things be crushed.
And as the judges, we won't see any of the contestants
but before during or after the test,
so we're not biased.
Cue the first pair of the 20 test subjects.
Rachel and Jeff.
And after given the rules run-down, we're ready to roll.
Packing the car in 3, 2, 1, go.
They're off and run it.
This is all ready. It gonna be cool.
Rachel is opts for speed.
While Jeff is appare to be more methodically in his technique.
It's facinating beat in psychology.
And it is a big load for a small car.
Will either method pay dividends?
Guys have just about 3 minutes left.
Rachel certainly finishes well inside the allotted 15 minutes,
as does Jeff.
And they both managed to squeeze in every item.
That was very, very exciting.
But let's see what the judges have to say.
First up, Rachel's red car attempt
and it's not looking great.
This person actually fit everything in there,
but it is hard to imagine doing
a clutter or sloppier job of doing that.
Despite being her family's designated packer,
even before the drive test,
it is clear Rachel's handling of the delicate items,
like a baby, is a bit of disaster.
You got to be kidding.
I can't hardly tell which end of the kid is up.
Comfort test.
And finally Kari carries out the comfort test.
OK, that's not very cool.
No elbow room, knees hitting here,
luckily I'm small.
The judges are clearly not impressed,
at the scores so far is medi-okey at best.
Going on a road trip.
Let's see how the luggage and passengers survive the drive
both in turns of comfort and breakages.
Adam puts the car
and its precarious packed mode through its passes.
I think I'd went rather better than I imaging, didn't I?
And after the "Mythbusters" family arrives
at the vacation destination, surprisingly--
Eggs are all intact.
The eggs and cake are intact.
However, the baby didn't make it.
Can you believe that you have to specify that it's a delicate item.
Rachel didn't get the women off to a good start.
Jeff on the other hand has done the men proud.
Well I get pictures they're where they wouldn't damaged.
Be scored well on time, efficiency and comfort.
And after the drive test,
all of the fragile items survived.
Not bad. Not bad. The boys are clearly one up.
So far, the myth's destination appears to be confirmed-ville.
Coming up. Battle of the sexes reaches an epic conclusion!
The hippocampus--
an area of the brain the size and shape of a seahorse,
is responsible for emotional memory.
It's significantely bigger in women than men.
In map reading mayhem,
the first female navigator lost her marbles,
as well as her bearings.
We actually had to stop on the side of the road three times.
She had no idea where we were going. We're totally lost.
But there's so much fun.
But the first male did even worse.
He was taking us through neighborhoods.
We were driving down side streets.
We actually pull the map out to see where he was going.
I had no idea where we are at.
Turns out, when we were done,
he went way over the eight mile limit that we are allowed.
So after round one,
it seems that the two sexes are equal.
So cue contestant number 3--Jen.
- Hi, are you Jen? - Yes.
- Ready to navigate for science? - Yes.
Get in.
Here is your map.
Jen studies the map.
Grant resets the odometer and then they all hit the road.
OK Jen, what's my first direction?
This time there's a major difference,
not only does she gives clear instructions,
but she also get all the way to the finish line
with out a singal stop or wrong turn.
Congratulations Jen, you made to the water quality control plant.
However Jen doesn't get a perfect score,
because her choice of the route is not the shortest
You did decide to go the longer route.
We went 11 miles,
that's three miles over the alloted eight mile limit.
So you lose 30 points.
Contestant four is Jeff.
- Hey, there. - Welcome.
And like Jen, he sails through the test with no slipups.
However, unlike Jen,
he also complete the course in the minimum 8 miles.
You got a perfect score.
Not to be outdone, Sherry steps up for the women.
- Jump in. - I'm not ready but I'm jumping in.
And she, too, nails a perfect 100.
So far, the myth is not playing out as expected.
It's neck and neck,
with 15 nevigators still to come.
Everyone, keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times.
Here's your map.
And those 15 follow a similar pattern.
Some people get horribly lost,
others never deviate.
So, at least we're not on the freeway.
And while they nearly all blame their deficiencies
on modern technology,
The map part of the test was pretty difficult,
considering I don't use maps anymore, I use my phone for GPS.
at the end of the tiring afternoon,
the results of all 20 volunteers are in.
So, cue the drum roll.
The results of this myth,
women got a 77 point average,
and men only got a 74 point average.
That means the men are not better map readers than women.
We're equals.
Yet with such a small sample size,
the three point difference is too close to call,
meaning men and women are effectively equal.
Moreover, the way people lost points
through mistake or distance penalties
was also equal at the cross sexs.
Most importantly, this myth is busted.
Men are not better map readers than women.
Busted.
OK, get out here.
Chauffeur!
That's another busted stereotype,
and another example of gender equality.
The result is down to the final test.
Is loading up the luggage is really best left to the boys?
Well, with one pair of test subjects down.
You gotta be kiding.
It's men on top.
The first guy easily outscored our first gal.
I'm loving this test.
But one data point a sample does not make.
Packing in the car in 3, 2, 1, go.
So the second pair of packers get busy,
and Adam struggles with the basic reality.
Watching people solve these problems is just fascinating,
I keep on thinking why are they doing it that way,
then I realize they're not me.
No, and once again,
the female test subject seems to be playing to type.
Stop packing.
Judge Jamie is unimpressed.
That's why the rest of the car was neat.
Because they simply didn't put them all in.
And by the end of the drive,
they had even less than they started with.
Where is the skateboard?
And there it is.
But if girl number two was bad, the guy was even worse.
Really? They forgot the baby? The baby?
Not a great start,
and his score plummets during the drive test.
Bye, doggy.
Loose items prove to be dangerous,
and fragile items prove to be
fragile.
And we stop.
Those series of infractions mean a very low score.
And the accumulative average is now neck and neck
Go.
And so the rest of the day passes.
Adam wheels out success pairs of prospective packers.
And stop!
Are you OK?
But the only pattern to really emerge is the lack of one.
It is funny watching these guys and girls a pack.
That's where you put the cake?
We have 28 different packages, we got two cars.
By my math, 16 gazillion ways to arrange them in the cars.
I can't get my seat belt on.
I have seen things that are egregiouslly ridiculous
in terms of... just awful packing,
and I've seen some lovely elegant solutions.
The full gamp.
It's taken several tests up,
but finally someone has deflated the beach ball
and to get more space. Awesome.
While it's true that the quality
of the individual male and female perfomances
seesaws back and forth.
- Hold on. - Are you OK?
Oh, man, I just whacked myself in the ear with that fishing pull.
Sorry for laughing, but that's funny.
As we approach the last few pairs,
there's one pattern finally emerging.
The men have their noses in front.
The idea that men have better spacien awareness than women
may be a over repeated choke.
It has been shown the brains are wired so differently
and men do parse spacial awareness solutions
slightly faster than women do.
However, that doesn't mean we come to the correct solution
any more than women do.
But, time is a factor in our test, and right now,
looks like are men are winnning, but only just.
I think that's it. Jamie's gonna love this.
Number boy, what did they say.
The numbers are actually quite interesting.
Out of a perfect score, the men scored 51% up, they average 51%.
The women scored 45%, 6% less than men.
Is that significant?
If it's at all significant, I'd say just by a hair.
I think you can call this that the men are better at packing,
but litterally by a nose.
Well, I think we might have actually found something
more controversial than feul efficiency.
You mean like us discovering that men are acturally better drivers.
But they are definitely not better navigators.
Well, there aren't actually any clear winners to the contest, though.
But there were some distinct differences.
We are far from done testing here.
There are endless matter, cliche and stereotypes we can get into.
Absolutly.
So, if you got any gender differences myth you want to test,
send them all in.