by Sarah Knapton, Telegraph
Female infants show natural preference for faces, while males would rather gaze at objects
Girls and boys exhibit sex differences within a few hours of birth, a University of Cambridge study has found.
For decades, biologists and sociologists have noticed that boys and girls show different behaviours and preferences growing up, but have been unsure whether nature or nurture was responsible.
Cambridge scientists have shown that, on average, infant girls show a natural preference for looking at faces within a few hours of birth, while boys would rather gaze at objects.
Prof Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, who supervised the study, said: “This study addresses the age-old question of whether nature plays any role at all in shaping sex differences in the human mind and brain.
“The fact that we observe these differences within hours of birth, before extensive postnatal experience has occurred, suggests that prenatal factors play a role and that these prenatal factors – sex hormones and/or genes – go on to interact with postnatal experience.
“In other words, it’s nature and nurture, not nature or nurture.”