You can argue all you like, but it turns out women aren't actually better at multitasking than men - it's just not true.
Quashing the age-old debate, researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway have revealed there's barely any difference between the capabilities of both sexes - with both being as bad as each other.
Advert
A post published in Harvard Business Review discussed how confusion over which sex can multitask more effectively is often the result of researchers using different definitions of the term 'multitasking'.
The scientists explained: "We developed a computerised task - The Meeting Preparation Task (CMPT) - that was designed to resemble everyday life activities and, at the same time, that was grounded in the most comprehensive theoretical model of multitasking activities."
That model, it turns out, was put forward by University College London professor, Paul Burgess, who was a little more helpful in defining the terms.
The paper continued: "He defines two types of multitasking - concurrent multitasking, in which you do two or more activities at the same time (talking on the phone while driving) and serial multitasking, in which you switch rapidly between tasks (preparing your next meeting and answering an email, being interrupted by a colleague, checking Twitter).
Advert
"It's this latter type of multitasking that most of us do most often, and this type of multitasking we wanted to test."
The study - which sounds like a disorganised person's nightmare - was conducted using 66 women and 82 men aged 18-60, in which it placed participants in a three-room space, where they were required to prepare for a meeting, at the same time dealing with issues such as missing chairs and incoming phone calls.
The scientists the compared how each group performed, based on several factors including whether the task was done accurately, how long it took for participants to do it and how they managed the distracting events.
Advert
"We found no differences between men and women in terms of serial multitasking abilities," they wrote.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that there are no sex differences in serial multitasking abilities, but if they do exist, such differences are likely to be very small."
So gents, it seems you can no longer use 'women can just naturally do more' as an excuse, and ladies, you can stop bigging yourselves up. Everyone got that? Good. Carry on.
Featured Image Credit: PixabayTopics: Men, News, Interesting, UK