Researchers at the University of Cambridge examined whether behavioral differences between males and females originate from biological factors present at birth or develop through cultural and social influences. The study involved 130 newborns aged from eight hours to three days old who watched videos displayed on a laptop screen while seated on a parent or caregiver’s lap.
Each video presentation showed two side-by-side clips: one featuring a woman’s face and the other showing a Newton’s cradle toy in motion. An eye-tracking system recorded where each infant directed their gaze throughout the viewing period. While both boys and girls demonstrated greater interest in the face video compared to the toy footage, girls showed a more pronounced preference for the face relative to the alternative stimulus. The research was published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.
Yumnah Khan, a doctoral researcher at the Autism Research Centre, noted that the findings contribute to an ongoing scientific debate about the origins and timing of sex-based differences in behavior. Because the infants were only days old, cultural conditioning and social learning were unlikely explanations for the observed patterns, pointing instead to biological mechanisms such as genetic factors or prenatal hormone exposure as potential causes.
The researchers emphasized that their findings represent average group differences rather than universal patterns applicable to all individuals of each sex, with substantial variation and overlap between boys and girls observed in the study. The team hypothesized that heightened social attention at birth could facilitate the earlier development of certain skills observed in girls on average, such as language acquisition and social competencies, though additional longitudinal research would be needed to test this theory.
The Cambridge researchers are also investigating whether early sex differences in attention and neural development might relate to differences in how males and females are affected by various neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, noting that conditions like autism and ADHD are more frequently diagnosed in males, while anxiety and depression show higher prevalence in females.
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