Male monkeys prefer toy cars, females like dolls

[anhinga_anhinga]

Something seems wrong strange with this.

from http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/108552

The differences apparently date far back in evolutionary history to the time before humans and monkeys separated from their common ancestor some 25 million years ago, according to Gerianne Alexander, a psychologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, who led the experiment.

"Human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior," Richard Haier, a neuroscientist at the University of California-Irvine, wrote in the journal NeuroImage.

Variety of toys used

In the monkey experiment, researchers put a variety of toys in front of 44 male and 44 female vervets, a breed of small African monkeys, and measured the amount of time they spent with each object.

Like little boys, some male monkeys moved a toy car along the ground. Like little girls, female monkeys closely inspected a doll's bottom. Males also played with balls while females fancied cooking pots. Both were equally interested in neutral objects such as a picture book and a stuffed dog.

People used to think that boys and girls played differently because of the way they were brought up. Now scientists such as Alexander say a creature's genetic inheritance also plays an important role.

"Vervet monkeys, like human beings, show sex differences in toy preferences," Alexander wrote in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. "Sex-related object preference appeared early in human evolution," she said.

Alexander speculated that females of both species prefer dolls because evolution programmed them to care for infants. Males may have evolved toy preferences that involve throwing and moving, skills useful for hunting and finding a mate.

What seems wrong strange is how the statement that female monkeys fancied cooking pots might fit into this evolutionary speculation... hmmm... hmmm...

Upd: probably this was because the cooking pots were red, and the authors of the paper decided to spin their conclusions somewhat.

Comments

female monkeys like cooking?

[misha-b.livejournal.com]

Very suspicious as, indeed, many evolutionary explanations are.
It seems that anything can be explained by a sufficiently convoluted
evlutionary argument. Perhaps a case of reification.

Elementary, my dead Watson

[spamsink.livejournal.com]

For the monkeys there were not cooking pots, but rather gatherer's containers, as opposed to the balls that were hunter's projectiles.

[cema.livejournal.com]

"Males also played with balls", because they had them, unlike the females, who were just babies anyway, right?

[faceless-lady.livejournal.com]

конечно, конечно... про кастрюльки - полная ахинея...или, иначе, наглая брехня.
Стараюсь такие "исследования" не принимать близко к сердцу. :-)

У меня было много кукол в детстве, но единственное, что я с ними делала - это вскрывала им чрева и изучала внутренности (если они были). А уж с кукольной посудой вообще никогда не знала что делать...другое дело - солдатики...много, целые армии...и танки с самолётами. А самые любимые игрушки - оружие..чем настоящее, тем лучше.И лучшие игры - бегать с этим оружием по лесу, прятаться, выслеживать etc...Вот вам и охотничий инстинкт.

nice article, URL was looked for2 a long time, thx

[neurosurg.livejournal.com]

first facts, then interpretations. 1 could question the interpretations in this case, but the difference in prefs seems to be well seen.

p.s. btw, i was nearly attacked by my german colleagues, as i said that IMHO, sex-based behavioral prefs clearly exist.

Eurika! :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_rowan_tree_/]

It's the other way around: cooking pots were developed in a shape more appealing to females.

But I still think it's some sort of nonsense. Did you notice where this articles is published? One journalist can do more damage to science than a hundred monkeys to "War and Peace" :-)))

[dmierkin.livejournal.com]

а потом окажется что девочки отражение своё рассматривали. торопятся исследователи очень.

я тебе не рассказывал про похожий эксперимент с моими детками ?