Does your little one play with Barbies? Obsessed with Lego?
You could be influencing their choices in toys, albeit subconsciously.
This is according to a new study, published in the journal Sex Roles lead by Rebecca Woods, a researcher at North Dakota State University.
The study looked at 51 babies and 60 toddlers - between the ages of 5 and 12 ½ months old - with their parents during playtime.
New psychology study shows how parents can influence their children’s toy preferences https://t.co/Mv3UM4Lx08
— PsyPost.org (@PsyPost) September 6, 2018
At first, the 5-month-old babies were watched, to see if their parents' particular choices made any difference to the toys they wanted to play with.
It didn't seem to make a difference to them - baby girls didn't choose dolls straight away and boys don't pick a truck.
When they were retested at 12 months, there was a small shift.
Rebecca said, ''This is the "nature or nurture" debate as it relates to sex differences. The crux of the nature/nurture debate is, "How much of behaviours can be altered and how much is just the way it is…it can’t be changed without somehow changing our physical makeup?"
The parents were asked to sit at the table and encourage their child to play with one toy while ignoring another.
The children didn't appear to be affected, however they were affected by toys that were similar to ones they already had at home...i.e toys that their parents bought them.
"The toys that they played with in the home (i.e., the toys that they had been exposed to for some time) predicted their preferences," Rebecca explained.
"Since parents choose the toys in the home, parents may be able to influence infants’ toy preferences over time through simple exposure to toys."
Interesting stuff, isn't it?
