All that talk of your parents not having a favourite? Turns out that might just be a big lie.
We know that your mother and father have constantly stated that they love you and your brother/sister an equal amount, but either they were lying to you, or lying to themselves as well.
A new study published in the online Journal of Consumer Psychology (via Eurekalert), which isn’t set to appear in full until January 2018, have found some evidence that seems to indicate whether parents prefer their sons or daughters.
After asking parents directly, over 90 percent of them stated that they treat children of different genders equally.
It turns out that using a very simple test could indicate immediately whether the parents had a preference. Mothers and fathers who have two children – one son and one daughter – were told they would be given a $25 treasury bond, and they had to decide which one of their children was to receive it.
According to the study, mothers were more likely to give the bond to their daughters, and fathers were more likely to give the bond to their sons.
Kristina Durante, a professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey, who helped conduct the study, found that the reasoning behind it was very basic.
“We found that the effect was very robust in four different experiments and across cultures. The bias toward investing in same-gendered children occurs because women identify more with and see themselves in their daughters, and the same goes for men and sons.”
So there you have it: if you’re a girl, your mother probably likes you more than your brother. And if you’re a boy, then your father prefers you to your sister.
