The Science Museum has been slammed for displaying “antiquated gender stereotypes” with an exhibit that apparently determines the sex of a person’s brain.
The ‘What Sex is Your Brain?’ quiz, part of the museum’s ‘Who Am I?’ exhibit, poses questions to the user, while a ‘sex-o-meter’ analyses their responses to conclude whether their brain is more male or female.
The test states that men are better at “seeing things in three dimensions” and more able to imagine how things rotate. Meanwhile, women perform better at distinguishing between subtle details and have a good visual memory.
Dr Joseph Devlin, head of experimental psychology at University College London told CNN that he was “surprised to hear about this exhibit”.
He said: “The Science Museum has an impressive track record and I really respect their work in science communication. This particular exhibit is not at all representative of the work they do.”
First question in the brain quiz
He went on to explain there are clear differences between the male and female brain such as size and and chemistry. However, “claiming that there are ‘male’ or ‘female’ brains is disingenuous and grossly oversimplifies a complex topic,” he said.
The Science Museum addressed the controversy in a blog on their website, stating that the exhibit was “refreshed” in 2010, but some of the research involved is more than a decade old.
Alex Tyrrell, head of exhibitions and programmes at the Science Museum said: “Science moves fast, and while it isn’t always possible for us to keep up, on some issues it is essential that we quicken our pace to make sure we haven’t been left behind.
“We would like to keep all of our galleries and exhibitions up-to-date, but with many thousands of objects on show and finite resources and time this is not always possible.”
