Monkeys do not show sex differences in toy preferences through their individual choices.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Animal research (non-human behavioral experiment)
PubMed 36737809 · doi:10.1186/s13293-023-00489-9
What was done
Fourteen rhesus macaques (7 males, 7 females) were tested individually in a choice task presenting toys categorized as masculine (hard non-zoomorphic wheeled toys), feminine (zoomorphic soft toys), neutral (hard non-zoomorphic toys), and ambiguous (zoomorphic or plush vehicles) to assess preferences isolated from group social dynamics.
What was found
Both males and females showed similar preferences for neutral and masculine toys over feminine and sex-ambiguous toys, and both interacted more with neutral than masculine toys. Females interacted more with neutral and masculine toys than feminine toys, while males did not. The highest single-toy interaction frequency for male monkeys was with a doll. The abstract reports no exact numerical interaction counts, effect sizes, or p-values.
Why it matters
This study questions prior findings that male and female monkeys show distinct toy preferences parallel to human children, suggesting earlier results may reflect social dynamics rather than innate individual biological differences.
Limits
The sample size is very small (n = 14; 7 per sex), restricting statistical power. The study examined captive non-human primates in an isolated laboratory setting, and the abstract does not report exact numerical metrics or statistical tests.
Cited by
- context Research by Melissa Hines demonstrated that male monkeys show significantly more interest in wheeled toys than female monkeys, while female monkeys show more interest in doll-like toys.