London - Gender stereotyping can start as early as three months old – thanks to the way we perceive babies’ cries, say scientists.
Studies in which adults listened to babies crying found we pigeonhole them according to sex.
Despite there being no difference between the voices of girls and boys before puberty, higher-pitched cries are mistakenly labelled as female while lower ones are perceived as male.
The study also found that, when told the gender of the baby, adults make assumptions about the degree of masculinity or femininity of the baby, based on the pitch of the cry.
A male baby with a high-pitched cry was thought to be less masculine than average, while baby girls with low-pitched voices are perceived as less feminine.
In the study, carried out by the University of Sussex the researchers recorded the cries of 28 babies, some as young as three months.
The team then synthetically altered the pitch of the cries of the babies, while leaving all other features unchanged. This ensured they could isolate the impact on its own. The participating adults who then listened to the cries were a mixture of parents and non-parents.
The researchers believe this phenomenon is likely to be due to a hard-wired assumption baby boys should have low pitched cries. And the research, published in the journal BMC Psychology, may also show that gender stereotyping is more ingrained in men – as men tend to perceive greater discomfort in a baby boy’s cry.
Psychologist Dr David Reby, of the University of Sussex, said this finding may even have direct implications for babies’ welfare.
He said: “If a baby girl is in intense discomfort and her cry is high pitched, her needs might be more easily overlooked when compared with a boy crying at the same pitch.”
He added: “There is already widespread evidence gender stereotypes influence parental behaviour but this is the first time we have seen it occur in relation to babies’ cries.”
Daily Mail