Parents’ Autistic Personality Traits and Sex-Biased Family Ratio Determine the Amount of Technical Toy Choice

Abstract

We investigated the effect of parents’ autism quotient (AQ), their sex and the sex of their children on their toy preference. In a computerized forced-choice shopping task, adults selected from cuddly and social role-playing toys (social toys), academic, music and sports toys (educational toys) and construction sets as well as cars (technical toys). A sex-balanced high and low AQ sample of 160 adults consisted of groups of parents of sons only, daughters only, sons and daughters, as well as of a group of adults without children (non-parents). The standard toy preference was social toys < educational toys < technical toys. Low AQ women were the only group to make a significantly higher amount of educational and a lower amount of technical toy choices. The mere presence of just sons increased technical toy choice in this experiment, while the mere presence of just daughters reduced technical toy choice both in men and high AQ individuals.

Perceptual Load and Sex-Specific Personality Traits

“…The higher men's AQ score, the faster was the recognition and decision that a target is absent. Consistent decision-making in people with autistic traits is a reliable result in many studies across various topics (De Martino et al, 2008;Farmer et al, 2017;Lange-Küttner et al, 2019;South et al, 2014). In contrast, highly conscientious women searched for longer when the target was absent even in the pop-out condition where it would have been readily perceptible.…”