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Sex differences in attention are present at birth, study finds - C C - Sep 21, 2026
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144240
INTRO: The study, published today in Biology of Sex Differences, involved testing 130 newborn infants only hours after birth. It builds on previous research by the same lab and uses robust methods to demonstrate the differences.
For years, research has shown that girls, on average, learn to talk earlier and develop social skills faster than boys. Scientists have long debated whether these differences are due to culture or biology. One way to answer this question is to test if sex differences are present soon after birth, before society and culture have influenced a child’s development.
A study from the University of Cambridge published in 2000 found girls at birth on average looked longer at faces, and boys on average looked longer at objects. Since then, scientists in the field called for a replication of this study. However, no research team has attempted this until now, since it is very challenging to carry out research on newborn infants.
In this new study, infants were presented with side-by-side videos containing a social stimulus, namely a human face with natural movement, and a non-social object, namely a set of metallic balls swinging due to gravity and their mechanical properties (a Newton’s cradle).
The team found that, regardless of sex, newborn infants generally preferred to look at the social stimulus. However, on average, female infants spent a greater proportion of the time looking at the social stimulus compared to male infants, while male infants spent a greater proportion of time looking at the non-social stimulus compared to female infants.
Since this is within hours of birth, before much postnatal experience (such as social expectations based on gender) has occurred, it is likely that prenatal biological factors that differ between the sexes during pregnancy (such as hormone levels and genetics) contribute to the observed on-average sex differences.
Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge and the lead researcher on the study, said: “Our recent research has also shown that on-average sex differences are present in brain structure at birth and emerge prenatally. This new study tells us that there are not only on-average sex differences in the brain but also in attention and behaviour.”
Professor Sir Simon Baron Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, University of 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.”
The new study used more robust methods compared to the original 2000 study... (MORE - no ads)
RE: Sex differences in attention are present at birth, study finds - Syne - Sep 21, 2026
So replicating a study that, itself, essentially replicated ones in which toddlers and apes showed clear sex differences in attention to dolls vs trucks.
I wonder how many times you have to replicate the same basic finding before you believe it.