Gender Differences in Intelligence on the Standard Progressive Matrices in the Dhofar Region of Oman

According to Lynn’s developmental theory of sex differences, male and female children have approximately the same IQ. Females, entering puberty earlier, pull ahead for a period in early adolescence before males ultimately reach a permanent IQ advantage, commencing in the late teens. This has also been found in some Arab countries, though there are a number of exceptions, including Saudi Arabia. In order to further test Lynn’s model, we administered the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) to a geographically representative sample of 2,090 school pupils aged 6 to 18 in the Omani region of Dhofar. We found that, in line with Lynn’s model, males reached a small IQ advantage by their late teens. However, our findings were not precisely congruent with what Lynn’s model would predict. We argue that Oman’s relative liberalism towards females, as well as sampling differences, explain our divergence from the Saudi Arabian sample.