There is a popular idea that is so deeply rooted that, despite the evidence, it continues to be entrenched in our thinking: that human beings are like pieces of fresh clay perfectly moldable by education or context. However, There are many features that come standard and little or nothing can be modulated (not to mention that those traits themselves shape the context, in turn).
For this reason, no matter how much effort has been made by institutions, educational centers and even television advertisements, a new meta-analysis (composed of 75 studies) has not found that boys and girls have changed their preferences for toys in the last half century.
Children toys"
Parents of young children know that boys like different toys than girls like. Children show a preference for cars, robots, soldiers, bicycles, LEGOs. Girls also like bicycles, cars and LEGOs, but they also play with dolls and stuffed animals, toys that children find least appealing for active play.
According to the analysis, then, boys show a strong preference for “boys” toys, while girls are more flexible and tend to like toys more in general, although they are also typical of children.
Is this difference in toy preference solely due to socialization from parents, other children, and the media, or are there basic perception/action differences between men and women that make some toys better suited or more attractive to one sex than to another?
Interestingly, this trend is similar to what has been found in macaques that are offered “boy” and “girl” toys, according to a study conducted in 2008, so sexually dimorphic toy preferences appear to reflect basic neurobiological differences between males and females and are not caused solely by socialization, as social-cognitive theories of gender role behavior have suggested.
–
The news
In 50 years, 75 studies suggest that boys and girls have not changed their preferences for toys (like monkeys)
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.