Gender differences are often thought to be largely the result of socialization. Many researchers use infant studies as a way to avoid the complications of socialization effect. Connellan et al (2000) found that newborns males would spend more time looking at a mobile whereas female newborns would spend more time looking at a face. This study was coauthored by Simon Baron-Cohen, best known for his "extreme male brain" theory of autism (or possibly for his famous cousin, Sacha Baron Cohen). Leeb and Rejskind (2000) were not able to find gender differences in face gazing in infants under 5 days old, but did find differences in infants at 13-18 weeks. Whether this is a socialization effect or a developmental effect is unclear. Tronick and Cohn (1989) suggest a developmental rate difference between boys and girls in their ability to synchronize with adults, but Culp (1983) demonstrated that adults react very differently to infants based on their perceived gender.

---

I have no strong feelings either way about the gender socialization of infants. I am constantly baffled by the wide variety of clothing available for infants (and the often extreme gender specificity of the outfits) but I can't draw any conclusions about how people respond to infants. However, interpreting infant reactions seems to me to be as fuzzy a science as interpreting animal reactions; perhaps more, because the animal's brains are more often at their fully developed stage.

[comments disabled on this post due to spam activity]