When given the option to play with dolls or toy trucks, girls generally will take the doll and the boy chose the truck. That choice was not because of the parenting encourage girls and boys to be more active. In the experiments, the male vervet monkey also preferred playing with wheeled vehicles, while female choose the doll.
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| A female vervet monkey conducting an anogenital inspection (examining the genital area of the doll in an attempt to determine whether it is male or female), and a male vervet monkey pushing a police car back and forth. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/) |
This monkey research, which was conducted on two different species in 2002 and 2008, offered a biological explanation of toy choices. This new research further reinforces the findings of previous studies that received hormone exposure in the womb causing the baby when their toy preferences appear immediately after birth.
Why does evolution lead early toy preferences is still unknown, but obviously toys help boys and girls develop the skills necessary to fulfill their ancient gender roles.
In 2009, Gerianne Alexander, professor of psychology at Texas A & M University, and her team found that levels of testosterone in boy aged three and four months correlated with how much time they spend watching toys typical of boys than toys girls like dolls.
Level of exposure to androgen hormones during pregnancy, which is known by the finger ratio, or the relative lengths of the ring finger and index finger, also correlated with their visual interest to the typical toy boy. "Specifically, boys with typical men's finger ratio showed a greater visual interest on the ball than the dolls," said Alexander.
Kim Wallen, a psychologist at Emory University who studies gender specific toy preferences in rhesus monkeys, said, "Surprisingly, the data shows that the interest in this object appears at a very early age, before they can socialize." *** [LIVESCIENCE | KORAN TEMPO 3978]
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