It's All That TV Those Infants Watched In The Womb!
Science Daily reports on yet another study that shows evolved sex differences in toy preferences. And that's SEX differences, not gender differences, though that's how it's put in the article.
From my Apple computer dictionary:
Although the words gender and sex both have the sense 'the state of being male or female,' they are typically used in slightly different ways: sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender refers to cultural or social ones.
The Science Daily report:
To investigate the gender preferences seen with toys, the researchers observed the toy preferences of boys and girls engaged in independent play in UK nurseries, without the presence of a parent. The toys used in the study were a doll, a pink teddy bear and a cooking pot for girls, while for boys a car, a blue teddy, a digger and a ball were used.The 101 boys and girls fell into three age groups: 9 to 17 months, when infants can first demonstrate toy preferences in independent play (N=40); 18 to 23 months, when critical advances in gender knowledge occur (N=29); and 24 to 32 months, when knowledge becomes further established (N=32).
Stereotypical toy preferences were found for boys and girls in each of the age groups, demonstrating that sex differences in toy preference appear early in development. Both boys and girls showed a trend for an increasing preference with age for toys stereotyped for boys.
Speaking about the study, Dr Brenda Todd, a senior lecturer in psychology at City University said, "Sex differences in play and toy choice are of interest in relation to child care, educational practice and developmental theory. Historically there has been uncertainty about the origins of boys' and girls' preferences for play with toys typed to their own sex and the developmental processes that underlie this behaviour. As a result we set out to find out whether a preference occurs and at what age it develops.
"Biological differences give boys an aptitude for mental rotation and more interest and ability in spatial processing, while girls are more interested in looking at faces and better at fine motor skills and manipulating objects. When we studied toy preference in a familiar nursery setting with parents absent, the differences we saw were consistent with these aptitudes. Although there was variability between individual children, we found that, in general, boys played with male-typed toys more than female-typed toys and girls played with female-typed toys more than male-typed toys.
"Our results show that there are significant sex differences across all three age groups, with the finding that children in the youngest group, who were aged between 9-17months when infants are able to crawl or walk and therefore make independent selections, being particularly interesting; the ball was a favourite choice for the youngest boys and the youngest girls favoured the cooking pot."
The study is here.
For an excellent book on this subject (by a researcher who's done research on sex differences in infant preferences), check out Warriors and Worriers: The Survival of the Sexes, by Dr. Joyce Benenson.
via ifeminists
You've inspired me Amy. I need to invent a prenatal TV. We can't let this valuable demographic go to waste.
Ben at July 20, 2016 7:45 AM
I noted the bit about the teddy bears, and now I'm thinking about the apparent biological sex preference for the colors. I always assumed that was a social thing. Now I'm wondering what the biological basis is actually caused by, and what the evolutionary reason might have been.
Cousin Dave at July 20, 2016 10:44 AM
Actually, Ben, as I wrote that, I thought it would be kind of cool -- like being able to look into the washer or the microwave as your stuff is getting washed or cooking.
Amy Alkon at July 20, 2016 10:49 AM
Crid at July 20, 2016 10:52 AM
Boys' tendency to play with female-type toys type went down as they got older. Girls' tendency to play with male-type toys went up as they got older. Interesting.
I delved into it looking for data on the pink vs. blue teddy, curious for the same reasons as Cousin Dave. It does say the teddies were identical except for color. I could be reading this wrong, but it doesn't appear that the color of the teddy mattered, so they were removed after the preliminary analysis.
Pink was not a "girl" color until the 1940s. I have guessed that girls today prefer it because culturally we associate it with prettiness and femininity, and girls want to be those things. If our cultural signifier for "pretty girl" were yellow, I suspect they'd like yellow.
Insufficient Poison at July 20, 2016 11:56 AM
Um... why is a ball a boy toy? Why do the boys have 4 toy types and girls only 3?
Obviously, this don't invalidate the research, but I do find it curious.
Shannon at July 20, 2016 12:23 PM
My daughter and niece both prefer blue to pink and have since they were tiny. My daughter had giant collection of blocks, plastic dinosaurs (and could name them all) and never went for dolls. We have never had a Barbie doll in this house.
Sheep Mom at July 20, 2016 4:04 PM
The cooking pot for the youngest puzzles me. I would doubt they would have any idea of usage of it so I would think it would just be a weird shaped object. If the kids did have knowledge of the pot and its usage then I would think that meant there has been chance already for very significant influence. No if they did something else like ...like bang it for sound that would be different.
The Former Banker at July 20, 2016 6:31 PM
Shannon and FB, you both make good points IMO. A lot of the ev psych studies support what I already believe to be true--e.g., that men prefer blondes--and that leads me to scrutinize them less.
What type of ball was it, for example?
It was the girls under 12 months who played with the cooking pot the most. If a baby knows what a cooking pot is for, then she has observed it in use, and likely the person using it was her mother.
Insufficient Poison at July 21, 2016 8:17 AM
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