Men make more extreme choices and decisions, find scientists Men evolved to be explorers and hunters, whereas women prefer to stay near houses collecting food and caring for children.

For instance according to a study published in the journal Memory & Cognition, men and women use very different navigation strategies, because men are evolutionary adopted to hunting at distance, whereas women for collecting food at proximity. Women were better able to orientate themselves at the end of short journeys as a blindfolded passenger (or like chicken on autopilot, if you wish). They can also better remember the ways already passed and in more complex details than men, but unknown terrain makes them unsure. Men are more likely to take shortcuts, while women are more likely to "wander". But in real situations wandering is often dangerously close from losing straightest way to target indeed..

Shopping path of men and women joke targets the fact, that women are more picky rather than lacking orientation sense - but it still gives some clue, how women process spatial navigation.

When using car navigation, almost 39 percent of women "never" use the traffic feature, for instance; the figure for men is just 10 percent, because they're not only able to follow shortest path but also optimize it in competitive environment. And of course men are way more satisfied from usage of maps or car navigations, because they can apparently handle them better, i.e. they're more capable to transfer 2D information into 3D situation. The question is, how men would handle spatial orientation without maps or navigation - just with using of holistic and/or instinctive clues. Or to obtain overlook of terrain from subtle indicia - in this case women could process holistic information better, whereas men process reductionist information (schemas or maps) better. See also:

• Navigational Differences Between Men and Women: Men take shortcuts, while women follow well-known routes Study confirms that men and women tend to adopt different navigation strategies and men navigate more efficiently than women. This is not so exact: men just navigate themselves better at larger distances, women at shorter ones.
• The Sexist Reason Men Don’t Ask For Directions Across the board, the men who asked for help were evaluated as less competent. Women leaders weren’t judged differently either way (apparently because of social expectation of cluelessness or helplessness o:f women). But women have similar problem with female voice of car navigation, as they don't like to take advices from women, whereas men consider high pitched voice less competent or trustworthy.