"This is one of the situations where the boys probably should be behaving more like the girls," said Susan Witt, who teaches childhood development at the University of Akron" (Stossel). She says that, "boys and girls respond differently in situations like these because we parent them differently" (Stossel). The children were asked to describe themselves as well. The girls generally said that they were, "nice," when the boys described themselves as, "talented," "smart," "good at math," or "funny," but rarely said nice" (Stossel). According to Witt, "both funny and nice are good, but often girls are too eager to be nice, and boys too direct" (Stossel). .
The next question to ask is it just social or biological and can parents change their children? A known fact is that indeed, boys and girls are different because of the X and Y-chromosomes. Girls have XX and boys are XY. However, being different goes beyond just X's and Y's. Its socialization, which means parents and society treat kids differently based on certain characteristics, which in this case gender. (Stossel) A famous study called "Baby X" proves this. The study was designed by Phyllis Katz, who, "tested adults on how we treat babies based on what we think the sex is" (Stossel). They told the adult that the baby was either a boy or a girl and to play with the baby however they wanted. It was always the same baby, and when they said it was a boy, they called him Johnny and when it was a girl call her Jane. When they, "thought they were holding Jane, they held here gently, and gave her dolls. When they thought the baby was Johnny, they offered him a football" (Stossel). During the 70's people thought this meant boys and girls were born the same but only behaved differently, "because sexist parents and a sexist society taught them to" (Stossel). However, now it is accepted that both society and biology make them different.
