London, Aug 16 (IANS): Nurture, not nature, explains why men and women are so different.

Psychologists say it is nurture that has the largest effect on the skills, attributes and personalities of an individual, not nature.

Boys are not exactly born with superior map-reading or parking skills, or even prowess in maths, says a Daily Mail report.

Nor girls inherit better communication skills, or the ability to be emotionally mature or to multi-task.

They develop them as they grow and are nudged towards gender-defined roles by both parents and teachers.

A new book, "Delusions Of Gender" by Cordelia Fine, a psychologist at the Melbourne University, in Australia, says there are no major neurological differences between the genders.

"Many of the studies that claim to highlight differences between the brains of males and females are spurious," said Fine.

"They are based on tests carried out on only a small number of individuals and their results are often not repeated by other scientists.

"However, their results are published and are accepted by teachers and others as proof of basic differences between boys and girls," Fine added.

Fine said: "Already sexism disguised in neuro-scientific finery is changing the way children are taught."

Her claims are backed by leading psychologists who say the theory we are hard-wired differently from birth leads to gender stereotypes.

Lise Eliot of the Chicago Medical School said: "All the mounting evidence indicates these ideas about hard-wired differences between male and female brains are wrong."