Cheapest insurance news
19/12/2011
Women should be given confidence boost to park cars
In the past, many car insurance providers have offered their cheapest car insurance policies to women as they are considered be a group of low-risk drivers, but for a number of years, female drivers have also been stereotyped as having poor parking skills compared to their male counterparts.
However, a new report has revealed that although many women do struggle with spatial awareness tasks, such as parking, a lack of confidence is to blame rather than gender.
Researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Georgia Health Care in the USA collaborated to conduct a study which examined 454 American students' abilities to perform a standard 3D mental rotation task.
While completing the task, the students had their confidence levels manipulated by the researchers which showed that, although women were generally not as good at judging space as men, confidence was a relevant factor in how they performed.
One of the researchers, Dr Estes, said, "Our research suggests that by making a woman feel better about herself, she'll become better at spatial tasks – which in the real world means tasks such as parking the car or reading a map.
"So a little bit of confidence-boosting may go a long way when it comes to reversing the car into a tight parking spot."