Secrets of the Sexes - Episode 1: Brainsex (Documentary)

Secrets of the Sexes - Episode 1: Brainsex (Documentary)

Men and women are just the same. Just as caring, just as promiscuous, just as good at a three point turn. Aren't they?

The results of a new BBC sex survey of 500,000 people from around the globe - the largest ever carried out - provide very revealing answers. And five men and five women are put through a unique battery of experiments to uncover the real differences between the sexes.

Engineer Lloyd finds out what's missing in him. Bickering couple Liz and Craig squabble over who's the most empathic - until a stunning brain scan settles the argument. And in a television first we reveal the true effects of sex hormones on the brain by following 29-year-old Max as, under the influence of monthly testosterone injections, she turns from a woman into a man.

Men will stop at nothing.

I'd rather die than lose I think.

You can't trust women.

Women can get away with everything
I think in life, just by smiling.

Men and women can't get along.

I don't feel Craig
understands me hardly at all.

Are we different species?

Five men, five women.

I found it really, really difficult.

Men have no empathy.

The world's biggest sex survey...

Secret experiments...

And in a world first,
brain changing drugs...

It's totally changed me life.

Mate? How're you doing?

Prepare to discover
what really separate the sexes.

We've invited five women and five men
to take part in a series of unique tests.

- Good morning.
- Morning.

Could you tell me your name please?

Yes. Jamie Hannah.

Our test group has been chosen to represent
as broad a range of people as possible.

And what is your occupation?

I'm a housewife.

Ah, investment banker.

Engineer.

I'm a teaching assistant.

And how many
sexual partners have you had?

Um... three.

I can count on both hands.

Hmm, God I can't answer that.

Um, a number less than my wife I think.

The volunteers know
they're taking part in a programme

about the differences
between men and women.

We need to take a saliva sample...

What they don't know is
that by the end of the programme

some of them will have totally changed
their view of who they really are.

First they need to complete

the BBC's online sex survey.

They" be tested on everything from

language to love, geometry to greed.

On your laptop computers
there are a series of programmes

that assess a whole range
of traits and abilities.

What we want to see is how
the brains of men and women differ.

Professor Richard Lippa and his colleagues

designed the survey for us,

and since it went online nearly half a
million people world-wide have taken part.

This is the single largest gender survey
that's ever been conducted.

We've never been able to assess such a
variety of people in so many different areas.

What we want to know is how
different our men and women are

and how they measure up to the nation.

I'd rather die than lose I think.

I'm more interested in engineering
than I am in people.

I'm a fighter.

I think that's a masculine quality
that I definitely have.

I'm a man in a traditionally female role.

I like to say how I feel.

If that gets me into trouble, so be it.

Well that's me.

He sees me a bit like
a Rottweiler or something.

And I always wear something
that's quite low cut, quite you know...

In my job we deal with um,
hundred and millions of pounds.

They're just numbers on screen.

They're just zeros.

I wouldn't really say
I was a girlie girl at all.

We'll be testing out
volunteers whatever they do.

Even the cab they arrived in

was rigged with hidden cameras.

- Hello.
- Alright, how are you doing.

And driven by an actor.

The BBC, eh?

- What a load of bollocks.
- Is it?

What's going on?

They're doing a science programme,
difference between men and women.

The way they think,
the way that we think differently, eh?

Yeah. As in, men do,
women don't. You know?

- I love documentaries.
- Yeah.

There's so much rubbish on telly.

The actor makes sure that all of our
passengers hear the same conversation.

Well they were saying
that the square mile down here,

if it-if it was an independent country

it would be the 20th richest in the world.

Yeah.

- That's what they were saying.
- Amazing.

Well you'd think
after 29 years of marriage

you'd know someone pretty well,
wouldn't you.

You would do, wouldn't you.

Not me. She's run off with another bloke.

Like obviously not.

Think that's why I'm on the show.

I'd fucking party mass
off round the world.

I just can't believe I was that stupid.

But will the men and women

remember different bits
of what they've heard?

Will the next person come in please?

Psychiatrist Doctor Sandra Scott

springs a surprise interrogation.

What kind of car did you come here in?

Er it was a silver Mercedes.

Anything else?

Er, silver, leather seats,

um, GPS system on the dashboard...

That it?

I noticed the central locking
switch had a chrome handle

for opening the door
after central locking.

Did you talk to the cab driver?

Er yeah we talked

er about um...

the sort of financial centre of er London.

Yeah they were going on
about the square mile which is,

you-you might have heard of it,
just down here?

It's where all the banks are in London.
Yeah.

They reckon that if it
was an independent country

it'd be the 20th richest
in the world. Unbelievable.

Yeah.

Can you recall
three facts or possibly more

of what he told you
about the City of London?

Um... tch... er...

I can't remember. He was er, um...

Er... no.

Do you remember him
talking about his marriage?

Yes I do, yeah.

So that was another topic covered.

It was, yeah...

Car was automatic by the way.

Sorry?

The car was automatic, by the way.

Okay.

It had a walnut trim.

So were you actually listening to him?

I... yes! Er um er or connecting

but-rather than wishing
to store information, so...

What did interest you?

Talking about his marriage problems.

He was really quite open
which quite surprised me really

because men are quite,
normally hide their feelings

but he was quite forthcoming.

You know he's glad
that the kids are older

and they've moved out,

but it just means
that he's alone now really.

And he said,
if it had been the other way round,

um, she would have
found out really early on.

You know, sort of
woman's instinct and all that.

How did you catch her out?

You didn't find her at...
come home early, did you?

That'd be awful.

Generally speaking,

all of the women had a much be-better
memory for the emotional facts.

Men were more thing oriented...

And women were more people oriented.

Women like relationships, men like facts.

But according to Italian scientists

it's not quite so simple.

Okay guys, take a seat.
Make yourself comfortable.

I'm just going to get you
to watch a few minutes of TV.

If the Italians are right,

you're about to witness
something very revealing.

A High Street bank has warned
that the number of new buyers

has plunged to it's lowest level
for 20 years. The problem of...

When we asked our viewers
what they'd seen and heard

we discovered an extraordinary thing.

When 24-hour drinking
becomes legal in England

and Wales later this year pubs...

The men remembered some of what
our male newsreader had said...

Licenses had been applied
for six from London,

none from other places.

If they didn't er
curb it within eight weeks

they were gonna receive a fine.

Scientists are warning
that a recent outbreak of bird...

But when they were
watching his female colleague

they appeared to have gone deaf.

The scars outbreak in 2002...

...She had two stories...

Er-er... she was quite
attractive for a start.

The girl had a pink top with black trim.

That's about all I can remember.

And she had nice breasts.

We found that men
are indeed interested in facts,

but one thing
they're more interested in...

is sex.

Which stands to reason.

Men are, after all,
much more promiscuous than women...

Aren't they?

How many partners have you had sexual
intercourse with in the past five years?

How old were you
when you lost your virginity?

We sent our researchers to find out

just how much more
promiscuous men really are...

Our street survey found that on average,

men reported 13 sexual partners,

while women only managed 7,

in line with other sex surveys.

But hold on,
who are all the men sleeping with?

And the survey's about
sexual behaviours and attitudes.

The trouble with asking
personal questions face to face

is that you rarely get honest answers.

How many sexual partners have you had?

I think... 25 or
something like that, 20-25.

I can count on both hands.

You can...

- So 10.
- Ten.

Either men are exaggerating or

women are being
economical with the truth.

To find out what's going on

we asked our volunteers
to take a lie detector test.

I'm gonna put wire round your stomach,

and I'm gonna put
one around your chest...

then take the reading from one of them.

Try to breathe normally without taking
in a deep breath or holding your breath.

Okay.

Try not to nod or shake your head,

just say yes and no.

Okay.

I am the owner of a financial
and accounting recruitment firm...

I'm very money driven.

Be Jack I want to have
nice holidays, you know,

I want to get my convertible sports car.

And in the next six months
they're my goals.

So I'm gonna achieve them.

Gonna make sure it happens.

- Well I am about to start the test.
- Okay.

What I wanna hear from you
is a yes or a no.

Okay.

- Is your first name Lucy?
- Yes.

Have you had around 10
sexual partners in your lifetime?

No.

Have you had more than 10
sexual partners in your lifetime?

Yes.

I have had more sexual partners
than I admitted to.

You know the reasons as to probably why
I didn't want to sort of announce it,

but yes I have.

Well what are the reasons?

Well I think the main reasons
is-is sort of you know,

the reputation side of it um, you know.

I want to attract the...

and I think the-the man out there is
still old-fashioned in his views and points,

um, I think that you know, he still likes
a very sort of feminine type of girl who...

and the thought of him, er her sorry,

have slept with a lot of men,
you know, disgusts him.

When they filled in
our anonymous online survey,

men and women did admit to having
the same numbers of sexual partners.

And what's more,
nearly a quarter of both sexes

admitted to having been
unfaithful to a long-term partner.

We also found that
whatever their past experience,

men predicted more than twice as many

sexual partners in the future
than women did.

So even though men
are distracted by the idea of sex

they aren't more promiscuous
than women after all.

It's just that they'd like to be.

So one myth busted.

What about the other stereotypes?

Women are more emotional.

We're more understanding...

Friendlier...

Sensitive...

Caring...

But are women really more caring?

We hired an 8-year old actress,

fitted her with a secret camera,

and abandoned her on a London street.

This is what happened next...

This test is a measure of empathy,

the ability to put yourself
in someone else's shoes

and to act appropriately.

Hello darling.

- You alright, sweetheart?
- Yeah.

You're waiting for someone, pet?

Yeah my mummy's just gone in Simsbury's.

- How long's she been?
- Mm, don't know.

Do you want some company?

Well I think it was shock
to both of us to see

a little girl sitting all on her own
up against a cement wall.

Yes. And you just wanted to
go in and protect her and...

Yeah. And that's...

make sure that she was okay.

But it was just commonsense

when you see a little girl on her own
you don't walk past her.

I saw her twice actually,
going down and coming back up...

I thought she was probably waiting for
somebody in the hairdressers actually.

I noticed she actually did have
quite a brand new pair of shoes on.

So I thought she doesn't look as if
she's in a light amount of trouble.

I'm a man with me own, aren't I.

And if I'm seen talking
to little girls like that,

what's the reaction?

Of all the excuses given
for doing nothing,

concern about being seen as a paedophile

seems the most plausible.

But note that none of
the men alerted the authorities

or asked a women to help on their behalf.

What you doing there, poppet?

During the hour we filmed,

41 women stopped to help.

Some of them were so concerned
that they came back several times.

But only two men stopped.

And one of them was with a woman.

- Are you alright, darlin'?
- Yeah...

Twenty two percent of women offered help

as opposed tojust one percent of men.

But this is just one test,

and one way of measuring empathy.

Our volunteers are about to try another.

Former para Paddy Doyle
runs a boxing gym.

If it wasn't for fitness
I'd be... be-be in prison.

You know. I would be.

Paddy holds 130 world records

for fitness and endurance.

He is officially
the world's fittest athlete.

I've-I've had to be selfish
er while doing my sport.

And it's affected my relationships

because women couldn't take that.

It was either the world records or them.

And unfortunately I went
for the world records.

Like the others,

Paddy has filled in a detailed psychological
questionnaire designed to measure empathy.

Of the half a million people
who took part in our online survey,

over 90%% % of the top scorers were women.

Men were very much in second place.

How do you think
your husband would do on this?

How do-what do you think his score...

Oh this guy, you'd be having a laugh,

right at bottom.

Men have no empathy.

No.

Okay. Well let's to a man to see
how he feels about that.

For empathising I got 12 out of 20.

Oh, are we surprised?

Yes.

Thought it would have been um...
a bit less.

Yeah. So that has surprised me.

In the empathy test

Paddy actually outscored
all the other men,

and all but two of the women.

Paddy's breaking the mould

and shown that some men
can be very empathic.

What about you?

Um, definitely not.
A case, apparently, according to this test.

I got 3 out of 20.

Apparently I've been told
I do lack a bit of empathy.

And er I-I have tried using it
in a sentence before like saying,

I empathise with you.

But apparently that's not empathy.

Can I suggest you go to
Paddy for some lessons?

I will.

Liz and Craig Watson have
a personal interest in empathy.

Everyone looks so happy, don't they.

It seemed very idyllic really.

I rememberjust feeling
very comfortable with you. Then.

Craig is very calculating.

He's very stubborn.

Incredibly stubborn.

Liz is... is the opposite of myself.

Um, she's almost too fiery,

too almost out of control at times.

I don't feel Craig
understands me hardly at all.

And we've gone out sometimes
and Craig's had a book,

and he's reading the book when we're out.

You know and that-that...

that really upsets me actually.

You see, I haven't done
that for several years.

Oh you've done it recently.

Craig is living the life
of a bachelor, actually.

And he, you know,
he's a great bachelor.

Liz and Craig blame each other

for their failure to communicate.

So in an unusual move
we've asked neurologist Reuben Gerr

to examine their brains.

So um here is er the scanner,

and er what we will get
is an image of your brain anatomy,

but more importantly we'll get images of

what parts of the brain become active

when you have to solve
specific kinds of problems.

A key part of empathy

is recognising how other people feel.

We'll start doing the tests,

and the first test is the test
er of emotion recognition.

And you have to answer whether the face er

looks to you like a positive
or a negative emotion.

To me communication is
mostly about the non-verbal,

not what you actually say
but what you're feeling.

And I think Craig's not that in touch
with his feelings enough.

Actually maybe I've got perhaps
more sensitivity in that area

than I'm given credit for,
and-and vice versa that Lizzie

hasn't got quite as much strength in that area
that she gives herself credit for.

Well that's interesting.

I just learned something else.

If the scan reveals that Liz and Craig

read other people's emotion differently

then some of their misunderstandings
might be instantly explained.

The part of the brain that deals with emotions
is right in the centre of the brain, right here.

Liz shows er a hefty activation,

whereas Craig's brain
shows no activation at all

in this emotional part of the brain...

I'm not locking on.

...whereas you went straight to
the emotional part and you say,

how would I have felt
if I were looking like that.

You-you-you immediately invoke the...

the-the emotional part of your brain.

Liz is 40%% % more accurate than Craig
at reading emotion in others

because she is using the
emotional part of her own brain.

And the scans reveal that in this test

Craig shows no emotional response at all.

Liz, are you surprised at Craig's result?

What surprised me most was the fact

that it was completely devoid of any emotional
response in the centre part of the brain.

I mean that actually
has given me a big insight into

why um I've often felt I wish
he would show some emotion...

Yeah but-but also switching back,

in terms of our relationship and
in terms ofjust our understanding,

I sometimes need things to be spelt out more.
Yeah.

Yeah that-just don't think I'm going
to take it on telepathically or sojust,

you've actually got to tell me.

And also I mean in situations where
there's plenty of conflict and so on,

I'm trying to calm things down actually.

I guess I just want to avoid conflict,

whereas you're more able to...
or more willing to fort of embrace...

Yeah. Well I just think it's-it's a much
more interesting level to operate on

if you can get into
your emotional response a bit more.

If women assume that men
are just like them, and vice versa,

that's when you get into difficulties.

As far as you're concerned

you're sending out all these signals.

It's entirely obvious that you are upset,

so then when the bloke doesn't respond

you up the anti some more

because you're determined
to get an emotional response,

you introduce emotive s-you know,

emotive topics so he has to respond,

he can't ignore it.

And then what do you do?

You end up having a ding-dong.

It's a shame for it
to have to degenerate into a row...

just in order to activate
the emotional response...

The only real way forward
is to realise we are different,

we process this sort
of information differently,

and how are we gonna make that work.

Until recently scientists
were reluctant to acknowledge

any sex differences.

Partly because of history.

In 1879 Gustav LeBon,
the founding father of psychology

announced that
intelligent women are so rare

that they are as exceptional as
the birth of any monstrosity,

as for example, a gorilla with two heads.

Consequently we men
neglect them entirely.

And that, 125 years ago, was medical fact.

If I bring out a male brain
and put it next to a female brain

you can see er
there's very little differences

in any of the structures
on the surface of the brain.

The only difference really
between these two is their size.

And, ah, in general female brains
are a little bit smaller.

So the er explanation for this is
that men tend to be bigger.

And so this is in proportion
to that difference in body size.

I don't think anyone's going to suggest

that a small man is any
less intelligent than a large man.

Having said that,
there have been a number of er studies

to suggest that certain areas of the brain
might be slightly different in size.

And the biggest areas of difference
appear to be in language processing,

and also in this part

of the frontal lobe which is important
in visio-spacial processing.

And this might be
the basis for some of the er

functional differences we see
between men and women.

Ah, they may just be wired up differently.

Dub.

In this test

Tim is listening to made-up words.

Bok.

Different sounds are played
to each ear at the same time...

Bub.

...but Tim only hears one of them.

Gab.

When Clare listens to the same test,

this is what she hears...

Gab and gat.

Because women use both sides
of the brain to process speech

Clare can hear both sounds.

Tod and top.

Dot.

But Tim, who as a man,
only uses the right side of his brain...

Get.

...can only hear one.

Bok.

I found it really, really difficult.

It-it almost came over as one word...

...in both ears at the same time.

Things aren't looking very good for men.

Yeah it was automatic by the way.

Object-centred, partially deaf,

unempathic, sex-obsessed fantasists

is not how most of them
would like to be remembered.

Men are supposed to be
go-getting, thrusting, successful.

So we're giving them a chance to shine.

After all, men love competition
and they're great at driving.

Aren't they?

I want women to win. Badly.

I'm gonna really try and win this.

I'm in!

I almost feel it
in the pit of me stomach...

that I just wanna be better
than everybody else.

The hormone testosterone
plays an important part

in competitiveness.

Testosterone, the so-called male hormone,

is actually produced by
both men and women.

We're analysing our
volunteers' hormone levels

throughout the competition

to see how their testosterone responds.

It seems that men, um,
the kind of biological response

to competition is very different
than that in women.

In the men we see large fluctuations

which is consistent with what one expects
in response to competition,

but we see virtually zero fluctuation

in the women.

Men are more likely, um, as a result of
this increase in testosterone to take risks,

and risks might end in encounter

and competitive encounter
may be beneficial.

The testosterone powered
men quickly take the lead.

Lucy in cart 6,
the woman who wanted to win,

is languishing in 7th place.

But right at the very front is Lloyd

hotly pursued by Jamie
driving cart number 8.

Ah there's an individual who's very
much worth, ah, pointing out to you,

and that is number 2.

Ah if we look at his T-levels um

and compare them with his pre-race levels,

there's a substantial increase.

He's ah likely to be a very competitive,

highly... highly strung individual
who takes it very seriously.

I'm more interested in
engineering than in people.

If it-if it came a choice between
separating me from me lathe,

and separating me from Oliver,

I would let go of the lathe.

But I wouldn't give it up easily.

Want me to go first?

I can't just secretly let him win

like his mum can.

I just don't feel it's honest.

Right are you ready? Ready for this?

No.

Jump, jump.

To be honest I don't really feel bad

that he's crying.

To me he's just displaying

what I would feel if I lost

and want to be doing
the same thing really.

- How old is he?
- Six.

I'm not a monster.

But monstrous things
are happening to Lloyd.

Jamie's taken the lead

and he's not showing
any signs of giving it back.

But as Lloyd tries to regain the lead

his testosterone sky-rockets

and things go from bad to worse.

Yet more testosterone,
and more stupid risks.

Lloyd's race position is in free-fall.

As Jamie strolls past the chequered flag,

Lloyd's world has disintegrated.

The former race leader finishes fifth.

But I have an extraordinary finding here

where number 2's testosterone levels decline
rapidly to nearly that of his pre-race levels

which suggests to me
that something unusual has happened,

that something has,
something's gone wrong here

and I suspect
he's not very happy about it.

I feel absolutely enraged.

Not with anybody else but with myself.

Five minutes ago, when you were up there,

I could have got out, smashed something,

hit somebody.

That's how I felt.

I wouldn't have done,

because you know
you can't do that in public but...

I feel good.

But I mean I wanted...
I-I did actually aim to win.

I wasn't going in the...

well, I wanted to have a good time
but I wanted to win as well.

Jamie's testosterone levels
during the race

revealed the secret of his success.

While Lloyd's levels went through the roof

Jamie's were much more subtle,

allowing him to become more competitive

and take informed risks.

His modest rises were useful

where Lloyd's were catastrophic.

But if we look at the women,

there's no rise in
testosterone levels at all.

There's no doubt
that women can be competitive

but they don't have the edge
that testosterone can give men.

I am a very competitive person

and I was trying to do my best.

Um, I think I just, you know, break...

and then when I see
somebody in front of me,

instead of trying to
swerve round them I hesitate.

The men's' rise in testosterone

turbo-charges their competitive instinct,

though it can be a very mixed blessing.

It's not by chance

that women are less prone to road-rage.

Testosterone is an
incredibly powerful hormone.

It affects us all -

men and women.

And it affects us
well before we're even born.

For the first few weeks of development

it's impossible to tell if the tiny embryo
floating in its amniotic fluid is a boy or a girl.

They all appear to be female.

But in week 8

the males start to produce
testosterone in huge quantities,

and their bodies change.

And it's recently been discovered

that from the very start
they seem to behave differently as well.

At just a few hours old

girls prefer to look at a human face

while boys will look at,
well, anything really.

Barely born, and yet girls like people.

And boys like things.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen had a hunch
that the differences in behaviour

were down to testosterone.

He just needed proof.

I was very surprised to discover

that hospitals routinely store the amniotic fluid
after they carry out an amniocentesis...

This was the opportunity
that we were looking for.

Here was the fluid

that if you like allowed us
to go back in time

to make any link between
the hormone levels in the womb

and the child's current behaviour.

Well finding the amniocentesis test
was tremendously exciting

because never before were you
able to measure testosterone levels

produced by the child

and look at later
behaviour in relation to that.

Oh look at that there.

Why do you think the big triangle's

pushing the little one?

Don't know.

You don't know?

Well all the cartoons are designed to make
people think about the two triangles as people.

And what we want to look at is
whether there is any difference between

the one with high testosterone
and low testosterone...

very boring

The kids with high testosterone are more
likely to behave in a masculine way

than the kids with low testosterone.

The mummy and a baby,

and the mummy's pushing the baby out,

so she could watch telly,

missed baby too noisy.

Yeah? That's great...

If the big triangle was a person,

what kind of person would it be?

- A triangle person.
- A triangle person.

What about the little triangle?

What kind of person would they be?

Yeah but they're not,
'cos they haven't got any legs.

And we've been able to show
that the testosterone levels,

week 16 of your life,
are related to the eye contact you make,

the social relationships that you have,
the interests you have,

how fast you learn to talk.

All these things that could be very, very
important in the long term, for who you are.

Most of us will never have the opportunity
to have our amniotic fluid analysed.

But there is a scientist whose
controversial theory could mean

that we can all tell how much testosterone
we've been exposed to in the womb right now.

Our fingers have information
about how much testosterone

and how much oestrogen
we've been exposed to in the womb.

So the longer one's ring finger
relative to one's index finger,

the more testosterone you've had.

And that testosterone
has an effect on the brain,

and on the body.

If a boy has a large amount

of testosterone before birth

he's likely to be born

with a very efficient heart
and vascular system.

So the longer one's ring finger
relative to one's index finger,

the faster one can run.

These athletes are five
thousand meter specialists.

Professor Manning has never met them,

or seen them race.

But if his theory is correct

he'll be able to tell us all about them.

What I should be able to do
is look at the differences

between the ring finger
and the index finger,

and on that basis rank
these runners first, second,

third, fourth and so on.

In theory that should work.

In practice,
we're providing Professor Manning

with photocopies of the athletes' hands

and in return he's risking his reputation

by providing us with the results of a race
that has yet to be run.

I'm-I'm looking at a kind
of living fossil in the fingers,

something which tells us about
an event a long time ago

in the development of
this particular individual.

Each of these cards has got a number on.

The numbers are obscured
so don't take the front off,

er and the number is my prediction

as to where you're going to
end up at the end of the race.

On your marks...

There are other variables

that I ha-just have
no knowledge of whatsoever.

How many times do
these runners train, for example.

Er are they feeling okay today.

Have they had a row with their girlfriend.

You know, I don't know these men,

and all I've seen are their hands.

You know I'm quite nervous about this.

Um, I hope I'm right and er,

I'm willing to give it a go.

In most people the difference between
ring and index fingers is small.

But the ring finger of one of our runners

is a whopping six millimetres
longer than his index finger,

and Professor Manning is certain
that he's found his winner.

That was absolutely magnificent.

What I'd like you to do is to line up
in your finishing order,

and we'll work down line
and I'll rip your numbers off.

Starting with Russell...

Oh my god. That is amazing.

Pot luck so far.

No way!

Six.

We got four out of six right

but er the two that were wrong
were kinda quite close.

Yeah I thought that
the finger thing was bollocks

because there's so many variables.

I'm very impressed.

Professor Manning has agreed to
do one further, more radical test...

to see if finger length
can be used to determine

our volunteers' brain sex -

how male or female their brains are.

If I arrange you
along this line in terms of

the amount of testosterone
you've had before birth,

that has no implications for sexuality,

but is has some implications about
your very, very early brain organisation.

Our fingers may provide a record
of testosterone in the womb

because the genes
that trigger its production

also determine finger growth.

In general the men and
women performed to type.

The men are at the male end

and the women are at the female end.

Liz and Craig are at opposite ends.

But there's one exception.

Grace's fingers put her
well into the male domain.

In our survey of half a million people,

the biggest difference between men
and women was in visuo-spacial tasks.

On average men scored
40%% % higher than women.

But some women did outstandingly well

and Professor Manning thinks
that's partly down to testosterone.

If Professor Manning is right

Grace should do rather well

at our very own visuo-spacial task.

- Hi everybody.
- Hi.

- Morning Tony.
- Good morning.

I'm here today to teach you
on the cut 432 backhoe loader.

Operating a digger requires
a lot of hand-eye co-ordination.

And visuo-spacial skills.

Okay? As if you're holding a fine lady.

And according to our survey

most women aren't that great
at visuo-spacial skills.

Put the bucket flat.

Right, the bucket's...
which one's the bucket?

Don't, don't dig it in though.

Right. Ooh.

You've just got to be gentle.

So you will win because we're gentle.

These lot are like...

That's brilliant.

All our volunteers
have to do is copy Tony.

Oh you've gotta be kidding me.

And try not to break too many eggs.

According to Professor Manning...

Grace is the only woman

who'll be any good at this.

Good luck.

Oh shit.

Oh no!

As expected, the women were
comprehensively outclassed by the men.

I've broken my bucket.

But there was one exception.

Grace was joint winner with Lloyd,

scoring three times higher
than the rest of the women.

I think most of the... the girls,

the other four girls are living up

to the social expectations
of being woman-like,

whereas Grace hasn't
fallen into that trap.

I'm a flight test engineer
on the eurofire to typhoo.

I assess the aircraft systems

whilest it's being flown
by one of our test pilots.

I wouldn't really say
I was a girlie-girl at all.

I've always found boys' toys
far more interesting than girls'.

You might think that Grace
has simply acquired 3-D skills

by becoming an engineer

but her fingers tell a different story.

Even before she was born,

testosterone gave Grace

an all-male brain

with better visuo-spacial skills.

Testosterone is an
incredibly powerful hormone

that affects us all, men and women.

- A triangle person.
- A triangle person.

It shapes our bodies...

and affects our minds...

and it even seems to be
at the heart of why

on average women are better at
language and emotional skills

while men are better
at visuo-spacial skills.

But of course it's not quite that simple.

Averages conceal individual differences.

We've got nine months
in the womb to consider

and testosterone is not produced
in the same amounts

throughout those nine months.

So that it's possible to have
a kind of mosaic brain.

Different levels of testosterone

at different times in development

might explain apparently contradictory

brain skills in the same person.

So although Paddy's verbal skills

put him firmly in the male camp,

he was as sensitive as most women

when it came to some tests of empathy.

Previously, um,
I perceived it as a weakness

but as the days have gone by
and going through all the tests,

I'm quite happy that
I've got another side to me.

But I was also happy
that most of the times

I was standing on the 100 m...
100%% % male brain size.

Time for one last test.

This task is gonna be
about changing nappies.

And each one of you lucky ladies

is gonna have to be with this,
well crying baby.

On the face of it, simply a question
of who's best at child care.

But in fact it has a deeper purpose.

You're a good boy for
Auntie Lulu weren't you,

'cos you didn't do any, any,
any naughtiness for Lulu.

As we might expect,
most of the women do the task well...

There you go you right mate?
Howya doing?

While most of the men... struggle.

Let's see how this thing works. Okay.

Oh I got that wrong already.
Try again. Okay mate.

This will be interesting.

And you might expect testosterone

fuelled ultra-male-brained Lloyd

to struggle more than most.

I don't think I did a... a particularly
good job of connecting with the child.

But there was a task to do, wasn't there,

and I just had to get
on with it and do it.

You know I could be
changing a tyre on a car.

It's a little bit to one side.

Even me own son,

I found it quite alien
to connect with him.

I only made a connection grew older

and the connection
got stronger and stronger.

Wasn't instinctive, immediate bond.

It was something that grew very,
very gradually with my son...

I don't connect too easily with people.

That's actually making
me quite emotional.

I actually wanna cry.

If you like, there's something missing...

Many men find making
emotional connections difficult.

Once the women had changed
the nappy they picked the baby up.

In stark contrast,

most of the men simply stepped away.

Do you want me to return her? Or...

Everything's fine?

Nappy-changed, baby spoken to, task done.

Good boy.
Are you going to be a footballer?

Yet despite Lloyd's fear
that he doesn't readily connect,

when it came to the end of the baby test

he surprised everyone.

Ooooh! There's a real,
a real connection there.

Yeah. He's enjoying that.

Feels, it looks natural to him,
it feels natural.

I could kiss you.

I ooooh, I see,
we're talking now aren't we. Eh?

Lloyd is aware that
he's not naturally empathic.

So he's made more of an effort,
working his brain harder.

The result is that his behaviour is
indistinguishable from the women's.

Ooooh yes. Look.

I feel really quite
emotional watching that.

That's lovely...

It's almost like he does
all these empathic things

but in his mind these things don't add er
add-add up to empathy for some reason.

I'm not quite sure what ha...

I'm not quite sure how
he would describe these things.

The sex of our brain is not as clear cut

as the sex of our body.

I'm much more feminine than I realised.

While women tend to
have female brain sex,

and men usually have male brain sex,

as individuals we are a mosaic,

a unique mixture of both.

As a child-minder looking after kids,

I'd have hoped my empathy score
would be a bit better.

Though I have got a hard exterior
but it's nice I've got a soft interior.

I can learn a lot from Paddy.

Er P-er and Paddy has-has
learned me a lot already.

They're saying that guys have
these skills and girls have these,

but I think you'd be more successful

if you were a guy who
had all these female skills.

Do you.

'Cos then you'd have
something different to offer.

I've perhaps assumed I had more
of a male brain than a female brain

but there are things that I have got
quite a lot of my female aspects as well

and then totally become
a better person for it.

And knowing about our brain-sex
and where our strengths and weaknesses lie

has to mean a better understanding

of ourselves and each other.

I-I think it's a two-way street

and actually that we both actually
have to take a little bit more time

and effort to understand where
the other person is coming from.

Yeah...