Sex differences in attention are present at birth, study finds

Amazing stuff!

"... In this new study, infants were presented with side-by-side videos containing a social stimulus, namely a human face with natural movement, and a non-social object, namely a set of metallic balls swinging due to gravity and their mechanical properties (a Newton’s cradle). 

The team found that, regardless of sex, newborn infants generally preferred to look at the social stimulus. However, on average, female infants spent a greater proportion of the time looking at the social stimulus compared to male infants, while male infants spent a greater proportion of time looking at the non-social stimulus compared to female infants. ..."

From the abstract:

"While sex differences in behaviour have attracted considerable scientific interest, their underlying causes are complex and remain poorly understood.

One approach to understand whether early biological factors might play a partial role is to study newborns, who have limited postnatal experiences.

Previous research on neonatal sex differences is extremely limited, and studies that do exist have yielded mixed results, raised methodological concerns, and are yet to be replicated.

To assess these gaps, the present study aimed to reevaluate sex differences in neonatal attention. 130 neonates (67 males, 63 females; mean age = 33 h) were presented with a video of a human face and a non-social object. When analysing percentage looking times, on average, females allocated a greater percentage of time looking at the face relative to males (d = 0.40).

When analysing absolute looking times, females showed a preference for the face compared to the non-social object, while males showed no preference for either. However, no differences were observed between males’ and females’ absolute looking times for the face or object, indicating that sex differences are most prominent in the relative allocation of attention.

Since sex differences in relative attentional patterns are present from the earliest days of life, one possible explanation for this effect may be due to contributions from prenatal factors (e.g., sex hormones). However, alternative explanations may be that these differences reflect general maturational differences between males and females or arise from low-level visual properties of the stimuli rather than their social versus non-social content."

Sex differences in attention are present at birth, study finds | University of Cambridge "Cambridge scientists have shown that girls and boys show differences in what they pay attention to, even at birth. Since these differences are present so early, it is possible they emerge due to prenatal factors."

Sex differences in face looking preferences at birth (open access)

A screen-clipping from the stimulus video depicting the dynamic face and object presented to infants