KateAdiesEarrings Very interesting.
"italian I wonder if it's related to maturity. Studies have shown girls mature earlier than boys and this impacts on how they process their environment.* If they're maturing into a patriarchal society, it follows that their perception of both their abilities and their achievements will gradually wane. It would be interesting to see if the results were replicated in matriarchal societies."
That sounds like girls brains will mature more quickly (I can understand that and can maybe see an developmental reason for the survival of our species!) and the realization that society is imbalanced will dawn on girls earlier. Is that it?
Which matriarchal societies are you thinking of?
The monkey study seemed to find something about males but not about females.
"In humans, studies have shown that boys gravitate strongly to stereotypically "masculine" toys such as trucks and other vehicles, while girls are less rigid, spending relatively equal amounts of time playing with boy-favored toys and with more traditionally "feminine" toys such as dolls. One hypothesis put forward to explain this difference has been that boys face greater societal discouragement when they play with "girl toys" than girls do in the reverse situation. The researchers figured that by looking at rhesus monkeys, who don't face comparable social pressures to conform to gender roles, they might be able to illuminate biological influences on toy selection as well.
In their study, the researchers compared how 34 rhesus monkeys living in a single troop interacted with human toys categorized as either masculine or feminine. The "masculine" set consisted of wheeled toys preferred by human boys (e.g., a wagon, a truck, a car, and a construction vehicle); the "feminine" set was comprised of plush toys comparable to stuffed animals and dolls (e.g., a Raggedy-Ann™ doll, a koala bear hand puppet, an armadillo, a teddy bear, and a turtle). Individual monkeys were released into an outdoor area containing one wheeled toy and one plush toy, with the researchers taping all interactions using separate cameras for each toy, identifying all specific behaviors, and statistically analyzing the results.
The results closely paralleled those found in human children. As with human boys, male rhesus monkeys clearly preferred wheeled toys over plush toys, interacting significantly more frequently and for long durations with the wheeled toys. Also mirroring human behavior, female rhesus monkeys were less specialized, playing with both plush and wheeled toys and not exhibiting significant preferences for one type over the other."
La the study with monkey is great. Datun I kind of think that women (girls) more than men (boys) look for human connection. So are female children or monkeys more likely to be attracted to faces? I guess I believe the majority of this is socialization but with the monkeys then that throws a potential curve ball.
(Assuming the study is sound)
No one seems to have picked up on my "Give the monkeys a truck designed to look like a baby and a baby designed to look like a truck! See who goes for what. Simple!"
But that was a serious suggestion.Although almost impossible to do unless specially made but I easily found...
Toy trucks with faces...
www.amazon.co.uk/Tonka-Chuck-Friends-Handy-Truck/dp/B003UWQL1M?tag=mumsnetforum-21
And dolls which have no eyes or other facial features.
uk.pinterest.com/valeriesengupta/motanka-dolls-of-russia/
I wonder which toy would attract male or female babies or female or male monkeys.
It would be interesting to see.