Back in 2002, my attention was caught by a study by Gerianne Alexander and Melissa Hines of Texas A&M, in which young male vervet monkeys played more with toy balls and cars than the females did. The young female vervets played with dolls and pots more than the males did. Both played with “gender neutral” items, like a picture book, about the same amount of time. It’s hard to imagine that vervet monkeys are “socialized” into their toy choices.
Rhesus monkeys appear to have similar preferences. Kim Wallen and his colleagues filmed the interactions of young monkeys with wheeled toys (cars and wagons) and stuffed animals [2]. The males spent much more time with the wheeled toys than with the plush toys, whereas the females spent approximately equal amounts of time with the plush and wheeled toys.
These experiments do seem to support the idea that toy choice is not all about marketing at Toys R Us. The part of Wallen’s experiment that I liked the best was that the females played with wheeled and plush toys equally. This matches my own experience as a child (I played with Barbies, yes, but also loved my Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, and Erector Sets) and the experiences of my three children. Although Mr F was terrified of his daughters’ wrath if he forgot to match the right My Little Pony with its name, he also invented games like “Smash the Daddy.” (In case you want to know how to play, here goes: You teach your preschool daughter proper tackling technique, get on your knees, and let the fun begin).
Perhaps where the socialization effects happen with girls is when they DON’T have the opportunity to play with the “wheeled toy” genre. There are probably a lot of girls who never even see a Tinkertoy set. It seems to me that the best strategy is to expose kids to all kinds of toys, and let them choose.
1. Alexander, G.M., & Hines, M. (2002). Sex differences in response to children’s toys in nonhuman primates (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus). Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 467-479.
2. Hassett, J.M., Siebert, E.R., & Wallen, K. (2008). Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children. Hormones and Behavior.
3 Comments
AprilN · April 8, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I think that many children aren’t exposed to the variety/ opposite gender toys. I think the socialization effects are better observed when children are exposed to all types of toys and are let to choose. I think marketying skills might help parents to create a narrow line of vision for what their child should be playing with.
l.ogden · April 15, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I thought that socialization was much more influential than these monkeys seem to think. Perhaps the male rhesus monkeys didn’t play with the stuffed animals because they don’t need that soft comfort, but that doesn’t explain to me why the female vervet monkeys played with pots more than the boys This can’t mean all that the article is trying to imply, no monkeys need a pot, female or not.
A_Jolly · April 20, 2008 at 7:51 pm
One thing I knew for sure when I found out that I was pregnant was that I was NOT going to “gender” my child. In fact I chose not to find out what I was having. My family members were extremely discontent with my decision because they didn’t know whether they should buy pink or blue, dolls or trucks. I couldn’t believe how much grief it caused them! Their reaction reinforced my decision. My son is 1 year old and I have done a pretty good job of protecting him from thier overwhelming desire to infuse gender roles into his life. I provide him with a good mix of non-gender specific toys and gender specific toys. I have noticed a similarities in my son’s activities and the vervet monkey study. My son rarely touches his plush toys and he spends most of his time playing with wheeled toys, balls, cell phones and remote controls (yeah, that’s definetly a male thing). Although I have to say that he loves playing with pots and pans but mostly because they make so much noise when he hurls them across the kitchen floor. Lately he has taken a keen intrest in my cosmetic bag. Yep, he loves to walk around the house with a brush in one hand and a lipstick tube in the other. Perhaps I am inadvertently socializing him.
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