Dodging the Abyss

Do girls pay more attention to faces? Are they more in tune to facial characteristics? More likely to recognize a face?

This is a something that has occurred to me recently after observing my children. I have 4 children - a 13 yr old boy, 6 yr old boy, 4 yr old girl and 15 mo old girl. The other day, my 4 yr old and I were watching Nickelodeon together. There was a classroom scene in the show we were watching and my daughter turned to me and said - “Look, it’s Megan Parker!” This is a character from the show Drake and Josh. I waited until the girl was shown again and yes, it was the same actress who is on Drake and Josh. When my daughter made that observation, the girl had only been on the screen for moments, but she recognized her quickly. This surprised me that at her age, she recognized someone, out of context, that fast. Then again, she seems to notice people more quickly than my boys do.

Then, I got to thinking. I regularly say to my boys, while watching tv - hey isn’t that so and so? Both boys invariably reply “Hm. I’m not sure. Maybe.” It definitely takes them much longer to recognize a familiar face when seen out of normal circumstances.

So, is there a gender difference in facial recognition? Who knows, there’s probably already a study out there somewhere, either proving or disproving my little theory here.

It’s just one of those things that I ponder occasionally.