Young Female Chimps Cradle Stick-Toys like Dolls [View all]

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Scientists studying chimps in a national park in Uganda have found that all the youngsters like to play with sticks. They poke them into holes and just carry them around. But the female chimps also seem to act out nurturing them, holding the sticks close and bringing them into their nests at naptime. Males prefer to use the sticks to whack each other. Sound familiar?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=girls-tend-to-nurture-boys-tend-to-10-12-20



Presumably these chimps are free from our social conditioning. I think studies like these are interesting because they show many behaviors that some like to claim are entirely conditioned are in fact pretty well hardwired in.

No we shouldn't assume all girls like to play with dolls and act nurturing and all boys like to hit each other and avoid nurturing. But we shouldn't be surprised (and definitely not concerned) when of their own free will, many fit in to gender specific roles.

We need more studies like this to further suss out which behaviors are ingrained and which are likely taught.

But anyway I just thought it was an interesting article and hopefully conversation starter.