The secret is finally out: it's women who are geniuses

Channel 4's 'Secret Genius' has shown women shockingly underestimate their abilities. Helen Coffey asks why that is

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If there is one theme that has been consistent across the inaugural series of Secret Genius, the brilliant Alan Carr and Susie Dent-fronted Channel 4 gameshow that has scoured the width and breadth of the country for undiscovered Einsteins, it is that women tend to shockingly underestimate their abilities.

The show has seen regular Joes - and Joannes - from all walks of life compete in fiendish, Mensa-produced puzzles designed to test the skills that make up an IQ score. As it turns out, women have just as high an aptitude for this kind of thing - or possibly even higher, if the show is anything to go by - as men. Although the final, airing on 1 March, is an even gender split of two female and two male contestants, the semifinal lineup was two-thirds women.

“Statistically, men and women score very similarly on general intelligence,” says Dr Sonja Falck, a Mensa member and psychotherapist who specialises in psychosocial issues related to high IQ.

“There is no substantial difference at all in average intelligence. However, there is a difference in distribution of specific abilities, with men having a tendency to score higher on spatial-related tasks and women likely to score higher on verbal-related tasks.”

Clearly, lack of intelligence is not an issue - but lack of confidence just might be. The Secret Genius contestants neatly epitomised this handicap. Take Ollie, the ambulance crew driver with a photographic memory who nevertheless had to contend with crippling nerves (and only entered the competition out of “morbid curiosity” to see if she was “dimwitted and just good at remembering stuff”).

Or sports management consultant Jo, held back by shyness and a propensity to compare herself to her more extroverted brother, who nearly lost one game against the clock because she simply could not believe she’d got an answer correct the first time.