A new study shows girls are just as competitive as boys, only they are a little more subtle about it. That’s if you class passive-aggressive manipulation, and isolating tactics, as “subtle”.
Researchers tested the responses of three groups of four-year-old boys and girls to determine how the children dealt with sharing a limited number of well liked soft toys.
In successive trials, each trio received either one, two or three highly prized animal puppets. The sexes behaved similarly when there were two or three puppets to go round. The differences became clear, though, when there was just one puppet for each group. Boys tended to ask for the puppet, grab at it, or even chase the child who had it. In contrast, girls punished the puppet-holder by excluding her from their clique, whispering behind her back or even hiding from her.
Comments are closed. Please send a message if you want though.