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Men in science over estimate their own intelligence and underestimate the intelligence of their female peers, a new study revealed.

As a result of men in STEM subject areas frequently doubt the ability of their female counterparts, women often doubt themselves even when hard evidence such as grades prove their intelligence.

A doctoral student Katelyn Cooper and her professor Sara Brownell from Arizona State University studied the effect in an undergraduate biology class.

The average grade in the class was 3.3 - the equivalent of a B grade.

Students who worked in partners and groups, were asked to compare how they thought they performed in comparison to their peers.

The men in the class believed they were smarter than 61 per cent of their class mates whereas women thought they were more intelligent than 33 per cent of their peers.

“This echoes what has been previously shown in the literature; a review of nearly 20 published papers on self-estimated intelligence concluded that men rate themselves higher than women on self-estimated intelligence,” Ms Cooper and Ms Brownell wrote in their report, published in Advances in Physiology Education.

“More and more of these studies are painting similar pictures,” Ms Brownell said.

“Females are not participating as much in science class. They are not raising their hands and answering questions,” she continued.

Researchers said that STEM subjects are often dominated by men due to a common belief that men are more adept at maths and science subjects.

Although this notion has been disproved, researchers said the attitude still persists within the STEM industry.

Ms Cooper and Ms Brownell said their experiment was important as it took place in a biology class.

“Unlike the more male-dominated fields like engineering and physics, biology is seen as a safe place for women,” Ms Brownell said.

However, the study showed that women still underestimated their ability in this area.

Ilana Seidel Horn, a professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt University told NBC News that it’s been proven that girls and women doubt their ability of a subject more than boys and men do.

“Really bright girls often don’t feel like they know something unless they very much understand it, whereas boys are more comfortable saying they understand something without having an actual deeper understanding,” Ms Horn said.

The researchers said that a person’s self-concept of their own intelligence is important for student learning and said those who doubt themselves can hamper their learning opportunities.

"We found that students with higher academic self-concept are more likely to report participating more in small-group discussions; this could have implications for student learning, because studies have shown that greater participation can lead to greater learning," they wrote.