Sex differences in self-estimation of lay views about intelligence among adolescents

This study investigated the relationship between sex, attitude toward intelligence, and self-estimation of lay views about intelligence for self and parents among Portuguese adolescents in secondary schools. Four-hundred and fifty adolescents from Portugal estimated their own and their parents’ IQ scores on each of Apter’s eight multiple intelligences: telic, paratelic, negativistic, conformist, autic mastery, autic sympathy, alloic mastery, and alloic sympathy. Males rated themselves higher on overall and autic sympathy intelligence compared to females; females rated themselves higher on alloic sympathy intelligence compared to males. The higher participants rated their own intelligence, the higher they tended to rate that of others. Multiple regressions indicated that negativistic, conformist, and autic mastery intelligences were significant predictors for self- and parents overall IQ estimations. Results are discussed in terms of the growing literature in the self-estimates of intelligence, as well as limitations of that approach.