This WebMD article it makes the argument that men are able to find their way, when lost, better than woman.
The brain scans showed that men used much more of a part of the brain that interprets geometric clues. Women used only part of this brain region, and, unlike the men, also used other parts of the right side of their brains. Riepe suggests that their strategy for exploring the maze was to look for landmarks, whereas men used both landmarks and geometric clues.
I can honestly say that I would get lost in a shoe box. I have no sense of direction at all. As a child I use to get lost in the mall very easily. I remember that I told my grandfather this once. Now what you need to know about my grandfather is that he was a very outdoorsy kind of guy and could often been found fishing and hiking.
When I told him that I got lost so easily- he taught me how to use landmarks. Pay attention to the things around you so you can figure out where you are. So I guess I wasn’t even looking for landmarks as the say women tend to do. I guess that my brain is wrong. It works well for me…I hardly ever get lost now…but it doesn’t work so well at night in the middle of the desert…or in a snow storm…or that evil fog that we get where you can’t see anything past the emergency lane on the side of the road. Then the landmark theory doesn’t work so well…trust me.
Some people just have the gift. A friend of mine seemed to have a built-in compass, as it was all but impossible for him to get lost. But his personal magnetism was murder on most of the watches he ever bought – usually they didn’t last more than a few days.