Researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted an experiment to explore the nature versus nurture debate by examining whether behavioral differences between sexes emerge at birth or develop later through social conditioning. The study involved 130 newborns aged from eight hours to three days old who watched videos displayed on a laptop screen. Each video presentation showed a young woman’s face on one side and a Newton’s cradle toy on the other, while an eye tracker recorded where the infants directed their gaze.
The results indicated that both male and female infants showed greater interest in the face video compared to the toy, but girls demonstrated a more pronounced preference for the face over the toy than boys did. Because the participants were only days old, researchers suggest that cultural or social experience is unlikely to explain the observed differences, pointing instead to biological factors such as genetics or hormonal exposure in the womb as potential causes.
Yumnah Khan, a PhD student leading the research, noted that the findings contribute to an ongoing debate within the scientific community about the origins and timing of sex differences. The study, published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences, emphasizes that the results show average group differences rather than applying uniformly to all individuals within each sex, with considerable variation and overlap observed between boys and girls.
Khan suggested that early differences in social attention may contribute to observed developmental patterns, such as girls typically acquiring language skills and certain social abilities earlier than boys on average. The team is investigating whether these subtle early differences correlate with varying rates of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, noting that autism and ADHD are more frequently diagnosed in males, while anxiety and depression occur more commonly in females. Previous research has identified similar sex-based differences in infant brain structure at birth, attributed to hormonal exposure during pregnancy, particularly higher testosterone levels in male fetuses during early trimesters.
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