The variability hypothesis is the theory that males are generally more variable than females in both physical and psychological traits. It is a controversial claim, to put it mildly.
As a quick exploration of the topic—and a demonstration of bootstrap resampling—let’s see whether men are more variable than women in height. We’ll use the 2022 dataset from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which includes self-reported heights and weights for more than 400,000 respondents.
