title: Male more than female infants imitate propulsive motion.
abstract: Few experimental studies investigate the mechanisms by which young children develop sex-typed activity preferences. Gender self-labeling followed by selective imitation of same-sex models currently is considered a primary socialization mechanism. Research with prenatally androgenized girls and non-human primates also suggests an innate male preference for activities that involve propulsive movement. Here we show that before children can label themselves by gender, 6- to 9-month-old male infants are more likely than female infants to imitate propulsive movements. Further, male infants' increase in propulsive movement was linearly related to proportion of time viewing a male model's propulsive movements. We propose that male sex-typed behavior develops from socialization mechanisms that build on a male predisposition to imitate propulsive motion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. joyce.benenson@gmail.com
authors.forename: Joyce F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Benenson
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tennyson
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Wrangham
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012951:Socialization