from Hacker News

Parents favor daughters: A meta-analysis of predictors of differential treatment

by c-oreills on 2/24/25, 4:02 PM with 17 comments

• by arjie on 2/24/25, 6:18 PM

  A related phenomenon is in IVF for sex selection. I remember reading that Americans prefer girls to a great degree except for those of Indians/Chinese origin who prefer boys. Both my wife and I have the common reflexive distaste for being too predictable (we're an Indian/Taiwanese couple) but for us the choice was made since pre-implantation genetic testing revealed that our only healthy embryos (until gene therapies currently in trial reach fruition) will be girls.

  I do confess that, if we were fortunate enough to have three children, I would prefer at least one of them be of the other sex but the preference is exceedingly mild and I'd rather have all the children we can have than have ones of any specific gender.

  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19891844/

• by magicalhippo on 2/24/25, 6:11 PM

  Same in courts[1], another place where innocence is judged and punishment handed out.

  [1]: https://journalistsresource.org/criminal-justice/courts-leni...

• by roguecoder on 2/24/25, 6:23 PM

  Wild that that is the click-bait headline they went with when the conclusion in the actual study is: "after controlling for other moderators, our models suggest that parents report they slightly favor daughters over sons (a small effect). Children report no differences." and "Past meta-analytic data show that girls are significantly higher in effortful control, on average, than boys (Else-Quest et al., 2006)."

  But this paper seems determined to ignore that granting freedom to different children will have different results. It says: "Conscientious and agreeable children also received more favored treatment. For conscientious children, favoritism was strongest when based on differences in conflict (i.e., more conscientious children had relatively less conflict with their parents)."

  That seems less like "favoritism" and more like "the natural consequence of acting in a trustworthy manner".

  The paper addresses that criticism by claiming, without citation: "Whether differential control is developmentally appropriate or not, siblings may not see it as fair".

  We can talk about more-effective mechanisms to support good behavior, but the idea that every child should be treated the same regardless of how trustworthy they are seems patently ridiculous. Actions have consequences, even for children.

  "Why are boys not being taught to be conscientious?" seems like a more fruitful question than "how can we make parents be meaner to girls?"

• by heathwhohath on 2/24/25, 6:19 PM

  Reminds me of the Arcade Fire song Suburbs

  "So can you understand why I want a daughter while I'm still young? I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done. But if it's too much to ask, if it's too much to ask Then send me a son"

• by Spooky23 on 2/24/25, 6:23 PM

  Totally. In bigger families, girls get bonus points, and the oldest usually does too. In my Irish-American family, traditionally younger boys are fodder for the army or priesthood.

  This stuff is all cultural. Girls are seen as (and in reality are) more vulnerable in general, and in many cultures primogeniture was the norm and "feels right" at some level. As society progressed, inheritance isn't so strict, and women are empowered to live as full citizens.

  But the old cultural norms are still baked in. Alot of the madness in our current society is the collision of the modern world with assumptions.

• by skywhopper on 2/24/25, 6:20 PM

  In what context? Globally? United States only? Unfortunately the paper is not accessible so there’s no way to know. Not really fair to the authors to invite judgment based on the abstract only, this probably should be removed from the front page.

• by triceratops on 2/24/25, 6:14 PM

  > Conscientious and agreeable children also received more favored treatment

  I'm not surprised. Parenting is a tough gig. It's natural to favor the child that makes it easier.

• by 0cf8612b2e1e on 2/24/25, 6:49 PM

  I passed this along to an Asian woman and she had fighting words for the authors about the racial composition of the study.