Understanding Child Development

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Newborn girls averaging 33 hours old looked at faces more than boys who split attention evenly.

Measurable staring appeared immediately after birth, suggesting that genetics influences attention.

The study replicates a debated 2000 study supporting the reality of predetermined sex differences.

Imagine you are a newborn. You are just a few hours old, cradled in your mother's arms on a hospital bed, and you know nothing about anything, except the world inside your mother's body. You cannot talk, crawl, or hold up your head. A researcher props a laptop in front of you and plays a short video. On one side of the screen, a woman's face smiles, blinks, and turns toward you. On the other side, a set of silver balls swing and click in a hypnotic, mechanical motion, the kind of toy that rests on your boss's desk. Nobody has told you which one matters more. You seem pragmatically clueless, but are you? Incredibly, groundbreaking research shows that what you do next depends partly on your biological sex.

The question that won't go away

Few debates have generated more controversy, and more inappropriate inferences, than the question of male/female behavioral differences. The typical rationale used to explain differences is "acculturation," which suggests that how children are raised determines what they like. Pink blankets for girls, blue ones for boys; dolls for girls, trucks for boys contribute to a lifetime of cultural........

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