Somehow, in recovering from dental surgery and not paying attention to much of anything except sleeping and reading mysteries, I missed this study published by researchers at the MARCS Institute Babylab at the University of Western Sydney. It appeared in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Was it the water-cooler story of the day? Maybe it was lost among the run-up to Christmas. I thought it was fascinating. It raises all sorts of questions. 

Everyone loves buying dolls for baby girls and cars and trucks for baby boys, it's simply what we do."

"This common knowledge is supported by previous studies finding that 3-year-old boys prefer to play with transportation and construction toys whereas girls prefer to play with dolls".

"However, using state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology, we found that these gender-specific preferences are not present at five months, indicating that they are the result of physiological changes (e.g. their hormone levels), cognitive development or social pressure."

While Dr. [Paola] Escudero's research provides new scientific evidence for baby boys' natural connection to dolls, the debate about what causes the gender switch to be thrown in older children is still hotly contested.

"More research is needed to fill in the gap between five months and three years to determine if it's nature or nurture that triggers little boys' interest in toy cars and trucks and other stereotypically male-associated toys," she says.

What's your vote: hormones, cognitive development or social pressure??

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-baby-boys-dolls-trucks.html

The abstract of "Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults".