Boys will be boys, even if they're monkeys: study

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — The notion that children's taste in toys might somehow be genetically determined has long been disparaged by psychologists, pooh-poohed as unscientific, sexist or both. But a study by researchers in the United States suggests that when it comes to choosing between trucks and cuddly stuffed animals, chromosomes could make a difference.

There have been hundreds of studies that sought to distinguish acquired from innate behaviour patterns in small children.

But by the time kids are old enough to choose and play with toys, they have also been socialised -- picking up cues from their parents, peers and television -- on how little girls and boys should behave, making it impossible to tease the two influences apart.

So a team of scientists led by Kim...