Boys And Girls Were Left Alone For 5 Days, The Experiment Revealed Eye-Opening Insights On How Both Groups Are Misjudged
In recent years, more and more people have been calling for parents to “raise boys and girls the same way”. And upon first hearing that, you might think, “Well, obviously. All kids should be raised the same way!” But in practice, it’s actually quite common for girls and boys to have contrary upbringings. And one 2017 social experiment that has recently gone viral makes that abundantly clear.
Earlier this week, the Instagram account Impact shared a post breaking down what happened when a group of 10 boys and a group of 10 girls each spent a week living in homes unsupervised. The social experiment has recently been circulating on Twitter as well, after The Boric Acid Avenger shared clips from the original videos, and the internet has since been engaging in many conversations about gender roles.
Below, you’ll find a summary of both sides of the experiment, as well as some of the reactions people have shared online, so you too can let us know how you feel about the results in the comments below. Then, if you’re looking for another Bored Panda article discussing why boys and girls should be raised the same way, you can find that right here!
This 2017 social experiment featuring a group of 10 boys and a group of 10 girls who were left unsupervised in a home for a week has gone viral
Image credits: Impact
The video featuring the boys shows their home quickly devolve into chaos
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
They seemed ill-equipped to properly take care of themselves and the house
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
After forming gangs, the boys’ behavior became increasingly aggressive
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
By the end of the week, they had managed to completely trash their home
Image credits: Channel 4
You can watch the full video featuring the boys’ experiment right here
The girl house, on the other hand, painted a very different picture
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
They quickly banded together to organize activities and delegate responsibilities
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
They made plenty of time for fun, while still managing to take care of themselves and the home
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
Image credits: Channel 4
You can watch the full video of the girls’ experiment right here
While the girls were not without their issues during the experiment, the overall behavior of each group reflects the gender roles that these kids have been taught
Image credits: Impact
Image credits: Impact
If you’re a parent, it’s possible that you may have never even considered that your sons and daughters might be receiving a slightly different upbringing. In your mind, you likely believe that all of your children have equal potential and are capable of achieving whatever they want in life. But you might be subconsciously pushing them in one direction or another. Have you encouraged your sons to play sports without ever asking if they wanted to take art classes or try dancing? Have you encouraged your daughters to help you out in the kitchen but never asked if they’d like to play football with their brothers? We are all conditioned to associate certain behaviors and traits with boys and girls, and it can be hard to break down those unconscious biases.
However, it’s important to be aware of the difference in treatment that boys and girls in our own lives receive because that is exactly what sets them up to act in line with how the children in these social experiments acted. The girls did not innately know how to prepare meals or to take care of a home, they have been taught. And boys of the same age are perfectly capable of having the same skills, if they are expected to uphold the same behavior. But according to a survey by Netmums, plenty of mothers know they treat their sons and daughters differently, 88% of them in fact. They admitted to being more critical of their daughters, and some even noted that they would let their sons get away with more than their daughters could.
The idea that “boys will be boys” is an outdated belief that should no longer be perpetuated. Girls are held to higher standards, from a very young age, and are required to learn life skills and responsibility, or they will be looked down upon. Boys, on the other hand, are somehow allowed to skate by with little to no consequences for their actions until they reach an age where they are forced to take care of themselves, or find a partner to take care of them in the same way that their parents previously had. Of course, not every boy and man struggles with responsibility and learning how to cook, clean and take care of his personal hygiene. But overall, women are not given the option to miss out on those skills and lessons. They are just expected to know these things.
According to a 2016 survey from the UN, girls spend 40% more time on chores than boys do, and by age 14, that jumps up to 50%. While boys are outside running around or off playing video games with their friends, girls are first expected to help prepare meals, clean up the home and take care of their younger siblings. Girls face a variety of double standards in terms of their appearance, their work ethic, their temperament and more, and parents and educators should be working to see that boys and girls are held to the same expectations.
If you never ask your son how he is feeling because you assume that boys are less emotional than girls, he will never learn how to articulate his feelings and will instead learn how to bottle up his emotions. If a boy is never asked to help prepare a meal or clean up after dinner, he will learn that those actions aren’t his responsibility. If boys are taught that concerns of personal hygiene are “girly”, they might assume that it’s perfectly fine to sit in their own filth, potentially putting their health at risk. The girls in this experiment still managed to do things they enjoy and find fun in being unsupervised, but they also showed that they had the skills required to be functioning human beings. They were equipped with the tools needed for these circumstances, while the boys were completely out of their element and had no idea how to process the freedom and emotions that came with being left alone.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this viral experiment in the comments below, pandas. Do you think this is an accurate estimation of how the female version of Lord of the Flies would go down? If you’re a parent, feel free to share how you manage to raise your sons and daughters the same, and then if you’re interested in checking out a Bored Panda article discussing how beneficial it can be for young boys to play with dolls, you can find that right here!
Viewers of the experiment had much to say on Twitter, noting the importance of raising boys and girls the same way
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What's the control specimen in this experiment? What methods were used in the selection of candidates? What's the hypothesis you are trying to prove or disprove? Last but not least what kind of parents would allow such a thing to happen to their spawn?
Since this wasn't done as a real experiment, but "reality" TV, I can only answer one question: Parents who are paid enough.
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Societal training and expectations run deep, and it can be messy. Kids will be kids, but as a kid (and a girl) I was expected to take care of chores alongside my mother for my older brothers, including laundry and cooking. My brothers never had that responsibility and they paid for that lack later- and I developed a profound hatred of laundry. The shift of mom's and dad's teaching both sons and daughters how to clean and cook and take care of their own things is great.
Same. By the time I was like 5 I was already cooking light meals for myself & showering & even managing my older brothers when the parents weren't around. I was always wayyyyy more mature than my older brothers. Even though I'm 4 and 5 years younger. My dad didn't really raise me like that though. My mom & grandma did though. But I feel like my dad didn't treat us any different. He raised me just like my brothers. Same activities. Same skills. Like I knew how to build s**t before I was 10. My dad didn't baby me at all. But I feel like I naturally needed order & independence in my life for me to be happy. I was a loner growing up. Didn't really have friends cause I'd have them over for play dates & I hated how messy they were! I'd have panic attacks because they'd be eating cookies & then not wash their hands before touching my toys. I was diagnosed with OCD & an anxiety disorder before I was 10... I still don't know what triggered it. Maybe my Mom & grandmas pressure? Idk.
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I partly agree with the comment that girls mature more quickly, but I wonder how much of this is a reflection on the type of parents who would let their boys go into this sort of house unsupervised with other little boys, knowing what sort of sh!ts some little boys are.
I watched both the youtube films with my mum (80yo) and she was shocked that the boys were out of control but also by some of the mean things that the girls did too. I had to explain 10 times that there was a therapist there at all times and the cameramen were there too. The cameramen had to step in and stop the boys from abusing a little hedgehog too. None of the boys left the group but 2 girls did leave their group.
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Based on my experience in junior high, I would have given 50/50 odds that the girls would have formed gangs too.
And as a woman who works in an office full of other women, I wholeheartedly agree.
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That's not really about how the genders are different, it's about how the genders were raised to act differently. It's a cultural bias, not biology.
As a scientist, I can tell you that is completely wrong. The natural difference between men and women is huge. Society reduces that difference because it is necessary for civilization.
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As an old man who was once a boy, I can't deny I was a complete idiot, and I'm not sure I can really leave that in past tense ...
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Drawing graffiti on your own walls shows a lack of brains as well as no respect
One of the replies, "Tell me why men are in charge of the world again," is immediately followed by another reply, "the boys divided into two gangs." And I feel that is the answer. Boys are much more violent, and that tends to make people afraid and submit.
the guy who commented about japan is right. At a young age boys and girls there are treated like adults,in a sesne that they are trained in domestic things like cleaning cooking and running errands. This i so wish was a thing for westerners. And i wish our kiddos were taught this early one
Ever watch "Old Enough"? They send 3 year old in errands where they travel across town to buy groceries and deliver things to people.
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I grew up in the 70s. When I was a kid, we were frequently left alone: four boys, oldest age 10, youngest 4. From age 4, I learned to clean my room and make my bed. By 7, I was folding laundry. My 10, I was mending my own clothes, doing laundry, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, fixing my own bike, cleaning house (including dusting, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing garbage cans). By 14, I helped repair a local bridge, helped reshingle the roof, scrubbed decades of wallpaper off the walls so we could repaint. In high school, I learned to iron and cook, and was sometimes left at home alone for weeks at a time.
But if you were left in a group with 9 other boys would you be doing all this? Would you let yourself be the only one cooking and cleaning or would you go along with the other kids?
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Am watching these shows now, happily. Reminds me of this great (I thought) early reality show from 2007 called Kid Nation, in which like 40? kids of a wide age range were living in a ghost town (filled w supplies) in... New Mexico maybe? Really interesting seeing how kids adjust rapidly to situations, in various ways. Some predictably Lord of the Flies, some demonstrate rapid realization and become impressively constructive.
I'd like to see this done with other cultures, to see if we can isolate it between upbringing or nature.
I bet the Japanese boys will be very tidy. I expected the girls to make more mess and the boys to just go gaming and sure, not pick up stuff, but make some noodles and make less of a mess.
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The Panda sure does like to stoke the flames of man bashing don't they? Division is horrible.
Well, how many parents show their boys how to organise, clean, cook? It's not surprising that the girls are better organised because boys are still neglected when it comes to being taught household chores and compassion
Here's people's typical reaction to these things "Boys will boys" and "Girls would be better at running the world" I'm completely for supporting girls and their dreams and helping them to be future leaders. Don't blame boys of today what adult men have done then and now. If you want your boys to be better then raise them to do better.
i am pretty sure these results are exactly what the folks behind the scenes wanted.
Sounds like you haven't been around little boys. They are generally hellions.
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I remember seeing this american video in which they were asking something around if they think they should a woman president or something? A woman actually said they cannot due to hormones or something and that woman can cause war. The host was like - ahem, most wars were started by men... LOL. A leader is a leader is a leader. Period. And one of the best Prime Ministers of India has been a woman... of course, she wasnt without flaws
I honestly didn't expect a dichotomy that sharp between males and females. How much was editing?
I have a strong suspicion thst casting played a much more pivotal role in this. I'm sure that with different casting decisions the opposite outcome would have been equally probable.
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I'd like to know the follow up. Did they learn anything? Did the parents change anything?
TBH I think that girls are a lot more organized and conscious of what is going on around them, therefore they do not allow themselves to fall into disorder. Meanwhile, the boys are more rowdy and uncontrolled- and our society is set up to say things like, "Oh, boys will be boys!" or even praise them for their (toxic) masculinity. However, I do think that the girls can be a lot meaner and just straight-up cruel to each other, which leads to higher recorded cases of eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and other serious and debilitating mental health issues. As a girl, other girls can be cruel, rough, and more hurtful than boys (in my opinion.) Boys, please correct me on this! Anyway, that's what explains this to me.
Girls are meaner lol f**k off. Men have always will be the worst bullies and they never outgrow it. And the fact your blaming women for other women's mental health issues is f*****g laughable. Patriarchy is what has fueled all of women's problems.
Load More Replies... I had the same backpack from 1998-2003 and another from 2003-2010. My brother destroyed his at least once a year and got a new one. There were 2 rooms downstairs in our house so one was dedicated a teenage space. My brother destroyed everything in there. He would literally stab chairs in front of me to intimidate me. Some boys are very destructive and don't have the habit guided out of them.
Totally unsupervised? I doubt that very much. I agree with ZeroCapacity, the experimental design seems to lack basic standards...and by no means can I believe that the girls would always be nice to each other, as the "not without issues" indicates. They are - in my opinion - just as mean, but don't resort to physical violence. Partially because aggressive behaviour is less tolerated in girls than boys, so they take it out on a psychological level. Less visible, of course.
The girls were very mean to each other, and in fact two left the group before the end.
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I think I’ve watched this before! Didn’t click how lord of the flies+esqe it was
This experiment is scientifically flawed. How were the boys and girls selected? And how do you jump from the fact that the boys behaved so badly to the conclusion that this is caused by their upbringing?
It’s 2023 and we are still at a point where we oppose boys and girls? Where is the (so called) social experiment with a mixed gender group?
I feel there should be been a mixed group too. Also I'm not sure how equal this was in terms of the kids backgrounds as well
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This article is slanting the truth to support their point of view- raising children with equal responsibility. The description of the boys’ house is spot-on, but the girls’ house was far from perfect. The first thing they did was paint all over the walls. The difference was they painted flowers and, somehow, managed to clean all the paint off. Their fashion show resulted in a broken chair, not all of them were successful cooks (one resorted to trying to eat raw bacon), they poured water on the beds of girls with whom they’d had disagreements, one girl repeatedly locked herself in the bathroom for attention, and two left before the week was over. What people do not want to accept these days is that boys and girls are different, regardless of how they are raised.
Well, I don't know how much of this is "nurture" and how much of it is "nature". Estrogen and testosterone have their different effects on our brains. So it may not only be a question of what we teach children. It may also be a matter of genetically programmed chemistry. Back in the stone age when I was in college, I read: a book called "In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development". It was written by Carol Gilligan. And it is precisely about this question of what makes boys and girls develop differently.
Between the ages of 6 and 10 there are similar testosterone levels regardless of sex. I think I read girls still have more oestrogen. Both can be taught to cook, clean, plan. The difference is in what we expect, teach and allow.
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Another show to down men , what a surprise! , everything you have in your life from cars to your house , aeroplanes , wifi electricity network the NHS just about everything has been designed and built by men but you get of on a few young kids messing about. How did we ever do anything. of course history will be re written to make out the girls built everything.
Tell me again why men believe they should be in charge and they're better leaders than women. Explain it to me like I'm 5. Very little of this is "nature" and almost all "nurture" -- this is the fault of the parents who raised their sons with less responsibility and more leniency than their daughters.
Here's one to try. How about repeating this with children who's parents have chosen for them to be transgender or gender neutral? I am not trying to be negative here. It would really be an interesting study. Yet there are those you would prefer not see such a study done in order to protect their agenda. Hey, it could prove the notion that one may have been born the wrong gender. Who knows. Do the study.
Guess what's COMPLETELY missing from the article. ANY mention of the role of fathers. Not a word. Zilch, zip, nada. The words "father" and "dad" DO NOT EVEN APPEAR in this article.
they need to do it with different cultures and ages to have a more accurate outcome as British girls and boys would act differently such as Indian or asian would have a more calmer house as to say places like America will have a different outcome to Australia or New Zealand such as they have a more respectful to each other and not trash the house to also say it is also how they are raised as the experiment was 6 years ago so it could be a different outcome as the current internet is heavily fixed on what gender is better it is a thing we do as humans fight and live If you want to say even die thus we cannot find the article right for how it needs to be done again to give it a accuracy higher 😃
they need to do it with different cultures and ages to have a more accurate outcome
This is very interesting, but I would like to know just how scientific this experiment was. The sample size is super small, so that's a red flag for how much we should jump to conclusions about this. More concerning is how the author came to the conclusion that the results are from upbringing. What exactly is evidence for that? She just states it as if it's a brute fact, and almost no one seems to question it. I don't find any of this to be very enlightening.
lol this experiment was such bs. Aside from nothing about this being scientific at all, since there wasn't some kind of control group (just for a start), I could have told you what the result would have been before even starting because in the years 2000 there was still an extremely strong mentality of "raising boys as boys and girls as girls". At the time, boys were meant to do competitive sports, were meant to be aggressive, were taught that roughing each other and the area around them was just "boys will be boys", that they didn't need to bother learning how to keep a home because that's what girls were for. Girls on the other hand were raised to be all calm, social and quite. Were meant to learn how to cook, how to clean and keep the house. Even when they were mad, they had to hide it and still smile at people.
I do think you'd have to run this experiment several times to see if the results remain consistent. My guess is that the girls are more used to a lateral social structure, where they're all on the same level and therefore have to coordinate and convince each other. Boys seem to be more hierarchal. There was no leader or established structure to slot into, so all was chaos. They attempted to make a structure with the gang formation, but didn't do it very well. So I'm wondering how this would go if they did it again, but with a clear leader (like, one much older boy, or if they were 'officially' handed roles before being left, or there was one very charismatic, outspoken kid who just took over). I also wonder if the girl group would have a negative effect if they had a leader or were forced into a hierarchy. My hypothesis would be that putting them in a hierarchy would significantly increase the amount of mean girl behavior and infighting.
Maybe that's why the countries which have been led by women are in better shape recently. Iceland, Norway, Finland.
Gotta love that almost nobody is learning the lesson here... we raise our boys and girls differently, and ALL our children differently than in asian cultures. Bickering about girls making better leaders is the same tribalism the boys showed in forming gangs. Stop getting even, start getting better.
And we continue to promote at all costs patriarchy, male authority in all areas. I always wonder what would happen to countries ruled only by women, at all political and social levels... Maybe the end of the contests of who has the biggest and the disproportionate ego of men between them.
i am not surprised, boys are less mature in this age than girls, i consider both groups need parents to have a setting in life and follow rules, i usually let my son participate in all kind of cleaning and organizing household (to a less or more extent)
This isn't remotely surprising, if the boys had done a 180 from what they actually did, THAT would be surprising. The title states that the 2 parties were initially misjudged, no they were - the boys acted feral and the girl took responsibility for the upkeep as a unit, nothing surprising there.
This was an early example of trying to push the idea that males and masculinity are toxic. Both genders have extreme toxicity to them when studied.....
This isn't a fair experiment, especially if it's Western children used. By their age, the social norms of an unequal society have been drummed in, girls cook and clean, boys do f**k all. They already learned this from their parents and will emulate them. If this was a proper experiment, you'd need to use significantly younger children whose mannerismayare not yet established, but since they need carers at that age, it won't work anyway. Also all the ethical stuff.
They don't do that where I live. Girls are not treated different. 100 years ago, yes, but not even in the 70s.
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I'm not surpriced. When we had scout groups boys usually tried to kill each other and girls were ploting against each other. When we wanted to calm down boys usually some runnig game helped... for girls anything crafting was working.. SUPRISIGLY it is the same here... 5 days was too short to establish anything or to develop hierarchy, but could see one strog personality in each group, that wise one explaining behaviour of others
I was wondering if there might be bodily harm or worse with the children in the absence of parents, but it seems like if they were observed, some adult would have stepped in for that scenario... 🤔
Interestingly, during our month-long field trip with the university, the boy's quarters were always clean and presentable and it was the girls who managed to turn the whole place into a pigsty. Behaviour-wise as well, the girls acted like complete animals, while the boys were ok.
The boys went lord of the flies, but shout-out to Robert for standing up for himself and the other boys he was with
Found it interesting that both groups made a mess and started painting the walls the first night, and both groups had their early vs. late sleep schedule squabbles. The real difference seemed to be that the boys went for broke with destroying things while the girls were able to organize and mitigate chaos. Also, the girls did start fighting sooner than the boys, but were also faster to make it right again. Interesting too that 2 of the girls left early while all the boys stuck it out. Overall the boys house seemed more fun, but also way too chaotic. I was glad to see that both groups were able to come together and be supportive when someone got upset
As that one dude said. This all depends on the upbringing (parenting, environment etc). Make this experiment (a real one I mean) in different countries and the outcome will differ. I think he was right that Japan would have two very responsible groups. And I guess America in general would be similar to this right here. What I‘m wondering about is the rest of Europe and Asia. I could imagine Poland being like this but am not 100% sure. And isn‘t Spain rather a matriarchy? That makes it interesting. And of course I want to know the outcome in my own country, as I personally think/ hope we raise our children relatively gender neutral compared to some other countries. Oh, yeah, I think Northern Europe would do well. Can‘t explain why, though.
Gobsmacked that this can even be considered ethical or legal, even for reality TV.
This experiment should really be done to show guys and guys shouldn't be held to different requirements in life
One my jobs in schools was cleaning public bathrooms. As messy as the males could get, I only ever had to clean feces off the floor in the female bathroom.
I worked a midnight shift at McDonald's for 5 years, the men's bathroom was always fine the woman's bathroom ALWAYS looked like a tornado went through it.
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mothers have complained time and time again about their kids not listening to them but girls always turn out to be like their mothers anyways and boys turn out to be like their fathers. It's monkey see monkey do. It's not always the case but a lot of the times it is. Some of the boys I met who cook, clean etc., take after their dad because he did the same. One guy takes after his mom who was his only parent.
Sooo ... everybody is horrified of the boys but all of them stayed. Meanwhile the wonderful girls managed to have several of them leave the project.
Well... boys are not expected to get their feelings hurt which mught lead to qutting. They propably wanted to quit at some point.
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Well, I have 4 kids, two girls and two boys and I could imagine for sure that if the boys were left alone for so long, the house would be totally destroyed.
I've teached my sons how to cook and to clean, but I know if I going to leave them a couple of days alone, my house will be a disaster.
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Nobody 's asking who filmed that ? No unsupervised kid or fixed camera would capture this docu that way,
There were cameramen there and a permanent therapist in a room in the house who they could talk to.
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Nice article. It captures the essence of "girls good boys bad" propaganda spewed by today's media. It literally doesn't mention the major problems the girls had. Two of them literally had to leave the group.
I love how everyone is just perfectly okay with all the misandrist tweets. It's always the same thing, women are better than men. SMH. I didnt know anyone was better than anyone else. So much for believing in equality and respect for one another.
The comments aren't saying women are better. They're saying that girls are forced to mature faster because parents expect girls to be behaved and responsible. Not the girls fault and it's not misandrist to expect boys to be responsible too.
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The issue isnt so much that girls are expected to do more, the real issue is boys dont have anything to do. Im mexican, and in our culture the girls help mom in the home while the boys help dad in the fields. Well in the west the home still exists, but the fields dont. Also i would say that children like to help their parents. Little girls want to help mom bake a cake and boys want to help dad build the garden shed, but parents today are scared of everything so the boys arent allowed to help. Not only that, but the single mother rate in the uk is high. So when are these boys supposed to learn how to do man stuff? Now i know this is anecdotal evidence, but in my home we dont live like westerners. We own land and livestock, and grow our food. My boys help their dad fix fences, feed horses, build stuff, and my daughter helps in the home and garden. All of our kids a very responsible. Western culture is starting to have a man problem because of bored little boys.
The boys were given a cooking class and it doesn't take an apprenticeship to learn how to use soap and a rag and not draw on walls.
Load More Replies... As a US citizen, I absolutely detest little boys these days. Helicoptering and coddling has created a generation of cry baby little b*tches that can handle exactly ZERO adversity. Shame on Millenial parents for not stepping back and making your precious little boy actually deal with the world around him. Notes: I know this doesn't only apply to Millenials but they are clearly the majority of parents to young children in the here and now. I also know that there are exceptions but for every well behaved, appropriately mature male child I see, there are a dozen that behave years behind where they should be if not for the coddling.
It would be quite interesting to see them all now, I remember watching this when it aired in 2002, not 2017. All the kids would be around 32 years old now.
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I watched both videos, and this article is so slanted, it's wild. Bot groups painted on the walls the first day, and both felt bad and tried to clean it off. The girls succeeded because they knew what to put on it, but the boys went to great effort. Both held a meeting and created a chore chart, and both charts were largely ignored. The girls' did last longer, but the boys felt defeated from the start - probably because of the walls. Both groups fought and both groups tried to reconcile. The girls seem at first blush to be succeeding better at that, but then, two girls left the house before the end and a third locked herself in the bathroom for multiple hour-plus stints, so by that measure they utterly failed. I will say the girls did much, much better with food but the boys did try, they just didn't have enough experience in a kitchen to know what to do when things went off-book. It's not just about expectations through gender roles, but also about gender-influenced skills & training.
Bored Panda was very careful to blame gender roles these kids we’re taught. Huh? How about the far more obvious observation, males and females are inherently different. For thousands of years males were successful for very different reasons than females were successful. Stop denying this truth when, once again, it’s soo obvious.
I have always believed that males are more slobbish if left to their own devices, I'm a male, yes I would behave like this.
My brother is tidy from himself. He cleaned up my room, when I lived in a house with students and left a paper with: Congrats! You won the pig of the year award!
Load More Replies... No surprise here since the experiments played to the strengths of the girls and weakness of the boys. Not excusing the behaviour of the boys but restricting them to a building and expect everything to go well? Really? How do they expend all the energy that is geared towards exploring and facing challenges? What would happen if this was an outdoor camping scenario. Boys are given basic tools like fishing lines and hooks, ability to make fire, trap or hunt for small animals AND access to a building. In addition everyone be given a course in foraging, trapping, hunting, fishing, cooking cleaning, making basic shelter and then let's see what happens.
To be clear, I expected exactly what happened and I am not saying we wouldn't have the exact same results in a sound experiment, but if this counts as science, we're doomed
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Lmao yep because it's a gender thing to eat sugar all day and draw on the walls.
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It's no Kasper Hauser experiment. They were already socialized.
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What's the control specimen in this experiment? What methods were used in the selection of candidates? What's the hypothesis you are trying to prove or disprove? Last but not least what kind of parents would allow such a thing to happen to their spawn?
Since this wasn't done as a real experiment, but "reality" TV, I can only answer one question: Parents who are paid enough.
Load More Replies... Societal training and expectations run deep, and it can be messy. Kids will be kids, but as a kid (and a girl) I was expected to take care of chores alongside my mother for my older brothers, including laundry and cooking. My brothers never had that responsibility and they paid for that lack later- and I developed a profound hatred of laundry. The shift of mom's and dad's teaching both sons and daughters how to clean and cook and take care of their own things is great.
Same. By the time I was like 5 I was already cooking light meals for myself & showering & even managing my older brothers when the parents weren't around. I was always wayyyyy more mature than my older brothers. Even though I'm 4 and 5 years younger. My dad didn't really raise me like that though. My mom & grandma did though. But I feel like my dad didn't treat us any different. He raised me just like my brothers. Same activities. Same skills. Like I knew how to build s**t before I was 10. My dad didn't baby me at all. But I feel like I naturally needed order & independence in my life for me to be happy. I was a loner growing up. Didn't really have friends cause I'd have them over for play dates & I hated how messy they were! I'd have panic attacks because they'd be eating cookies & then not wash their hands before touching my toys. I was diagnosed with OCD & an anxiety disorder before I was 10... I still don't know what triggered it. Maybe my Mom & grandmas pressure? Idk.
Load More Replies... I partly agree with the comment that girls mature more quickly, but I wonder how much of this is a reflection on the type of parents who would let their boys go into this sort of house unsupervised with other little boys, knowing what sort of sh!ts some little boys are.
I watched both the youtube films with my mum (80yo) and she was shocked that the boys were out of control but also by some of the mean things that the girls did too. I had to explain 10 times that there was a therapist there at all times and the cameramen were there too. The cameramen had to step in and stop the boys from abusing a little hedgehog too. None of the boys left the group but 2 girls did leave their group.
Load More Replies... Based on my experience in junior high, I would have given 50/50 odds that the girls would have formed gangs too.
And as a woman who works in an office full of other women, I wholeheartedly agree.
Load More Replies... That's not really about how the genders are different, it's about how the genders were raised to act differently. It's a cultural bias, not biology.
As a scientist, I can tell you that is completely wrong. The natural difference between men and women is huge. Society reduces that difference because it is necessary for civilization.
Load More Replies... As an old man who was once a boy, I can't deny I was a complete idiot, and I'm not sure I can really leave that in past tense ...
Load More Replies... Drawing graffiti on your own walls shows a lack of brains as well as no respect
One of the replies, "Tell me why men are in charge of the world again," is immediately followed by another reply, "the boys divided into two gangs." And I feel that is the answer. Boys are much more violent, and that tends to make people afraid and submit.
the guy who commented about japan is right. At a young age boys and girls there are treated like adults,in a sesne that they are trained in domestic things like cleaning cooking and running errands. This i so wish was a thing for westerners. And i wish our kiddos were taught this early one
Ever watch "Old Enough"? They send 3 year old in errands where they travel across town to buy groceries and deliver things to people.
Load More Replies... I grew up in the 70s. When I was a kid, we were frequently left alone: four boys, oldest age 10, youngest 4. From age 4, I learned to clean my room and make my bed. By 7, I was folding laundry. My 10, I was mending my own clothes, doing laundry, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, fixing my own bike, cleaning house (including dusting, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing garbage cans). By 14, I helped repair a local bridge, helped reshingle the roof, scrubbed decades of wallpaper off the walls so we could repaint. In high school, I learned to iron and cook, and was sometimes left at home alone for weeks at a time.
But if you were left in a group with 9 other boys would you be doing all this? Would you let yourself be the only one cooking and cleaning or would you go along with the other kids?
Load More Replies... Am watching these shows now, happily. Reminds me of this great (I thought) early reality show from 2007 called Kid Nation, in which like 40? kids of a wide age range were living in a ghost town (filled w supplies) in... New Mexico maybe? Really interesting seeing how kids adjust rapidly to situations, in various ways. Some predictably Lord of the Flies, some demonstrate rapid realization and become impressively constructive.
I'd like to see this done with other cultures, to see if we can isolate it between upbringing or nature.
I bet the Japanese boys will be very tidy. I expected the girls to make more mess and the boys to just go gaming and sure, not pick up stuff, but make some noodles and make less of a mess.
Load More Replies... The Panda sure does like to stoke the flames of man bashing don't they? Division is horrible.
Well, how many parents show their boys how to organise, clean, cook? It's not surprising that the girls are better organised because boys are still neglected when it comes to being taught household chores and compassion
Here's people's typical reaction to these things "Boys will boys" and "Girls would be better at running the world" I'm completely for supporting girls and their dreams and helping them to be future leaders. Don't blame boys of today what adult men have done then and now. If you want your boys to be better then raise them to do better.
i am pretty sure these results are exactly what the folks behind the scenes wanted.
Sounds like you haven't been around little boys. They are generally hellions.
Load More Replies... I remember seeing this american video in which they were asking something around if they think they should a woman president or something? A woman actually said they cannot due to hormones or something and that woman can cause war. The host was like - ahem, most wars were started by men... LOL. A leader is a leader is a leader. Period. And one of the best Prime Ministers of India has been a woman... of course, she wasnt without flaws
I honestly didn't expect a dichotomy that sharp between males and females. How much was editing?
I have a strong suspicion thst casting played a much more pivotal role in this. I'm sure that with different casting decisions the opposite outcome would have been equally probable.
Load More Replies... I'd like to know the follow up. Did they learn anything? Did the parents change anything?
TBH I think that girls are a lot more organized and conscious of what is going on around them, therefore they do not allow themselves to fall into disorder. Meanwhile, the boys are more rowdy and uncontrolled- and our society is set up to say things like, "Oh, boys will be boys!" or even praise them for their (toxic) masculinity. However, I do think that the girls can be a lot meaner and just straight-up cruel to each other, which leads to higher recorded cases of eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and other serious and debilitating mental health issues. As a girl, other girls can be cruel, rough, and more hurtful than boys (in my opinion.) Boys, please correct me on this! Anyway, that's what explains this to me.
Girls are meaner lol f**k off. Men have always will be the worst bullies and they never outgrow it. And the fact your blaming women for other women's mental health issues is f*****g laughable. Patriarchy is what has fueled all of women's problems.
Load More Replies... I had the same backpack from 1998-2003 and another from 2003-2010. My brother destroyed his at least once a year and got a new one. There were 2 rooms downstairs in our house so one was dedicated a teenage space. My brother destroyed everything in there. He would literally stab chairs in front of me to intimidate me. Some boys are very destructive and don't have the habit guided out of them.
Totally unsupervised? I doubt that very much. I agree with ZeroCapacity, the experimental design seems to lack basic standards...and by no means can I believe that the girls would always be nice to each other, as the "not without issues" indicates. They are - in my opinion - just as mean, but don't resort to physical violence. Partially because aggressive behaviour is less tolerated in girls than boys, so they take it out on a psychological level. Less visible, of course.
The girls were very mean to each other, and in fact two left the group before the end.
Load More Replies... I think I’ve watched this before! Didn’t click how lord of the flies+esqe it was
This experiment is scientifically flawed. How were the boys and girls selected? And how do you jump from the fact that the boys behaved so badly to the conclusion that this is caused by their upbringing?
It’s 2023 and we are still at a point where we oppose boys and girls? Where is the (so called) social experiment with a mixed gender group?
I feel there should be been a mixed group too. Also I'm not sure how equal this was in terms of the kids backgrounds as well
Load More Replies... This article is slanting the truth to support their point of view- raising children with equal responsibility. The description of the boys’ house is spot-on, but the girls’ house was far from perfect. The first thing they did was paint all over the walls. The difference was they painted flowers and, somehow, managed to clean all the paint off. Their fashion show resulted in a broken chair, not all of them were successful cooks (one resorted to trying to eat raw bacon), they poured water on the beds of girls with whom they’d had disagreements, one girl repeatedly locked herself in the bathroom for attention, and two left before the week was over. What people do not want to accept these days is that boys and girls are different, regardless of how they are raised.
Well, I don't know how much of this is "nurture" and how much of it is "nature". Estrogen and testosterone have their different effects on our brains. So it may not only be a question of what we teach children. It may also be a matter of genetically programmed chemistry. Back in the stone age when I was in college, I read: a book called "In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development". It was written by Carol Gilligan. And it is precisely about this question of what makes boys and girls develop differently.
Between the ages of 6 and 10 there are similar testosterone levels regardless of sex. I think I read girls still have more oestrogen. Both can be taught to cook, clean, plan. The difference is in what we expect, teach and allow.
Load More Replies... Another show to down men , what a surprise! , everything you have in your life from cars to your house , aeroplanes , wifi electricity network the NHS just about everything has been designed and built by men but you get of on a few young kids messing about. How did we ever do anything. of course history will be re written to make out the girls built everything.
Tell me again why men believe they should be in charge and they're better leaders than women. Explain it to me like I'm 5. Very little of this is "nature" and almost all "nurture" -- this is the fault of the parents who raised their sons with less responsibility and more leniency than their daughters.
Here's one to try. How about repeating this with children who's parents have chosen for them to be transgender or gender neutral? I am not trying to be negative here. It would really be an interesting study. Yet there are those you would prefer not see such a study done in order to protect their agenda. Hey, it could prove the notion that one may have been born the wrong gender. Who knows. Do the study.
Guess what's COMPLETELY missing from the article. ANY mention of the role of fathers. Not a word. Zilch, zip, nada. The words "father" and "dad" DO NOT EVEN APPEAR in this article.
they need to do it with different cultures and ages to have a more accurate outcome as British girls and boys would act differently such as Indian or asian would have a more calmer house as to say places like America will have a different outcome to Australia or New Zealand such as they have a more respectful to each other and not trash the house to also say it is also how they are raised as the experiment was 6 years ago so it could be a different outcome as the current internet is heavily fixed on what gender is better it is a thing we do as humans fight and live If you want to say even die thus we cannot find the article right for how it needs to be done again to give it a accuracy higher 😃
they need to do it with different cultures and ages to have a more accurate outcome
This is very interesting, but I would like to know just how scientific this experiment was. The sample size is super small, so that's a red flag for how much we should jump to conclusions about this. More concerning is how the author came to the conclusion that the results are from upbringing. What exactly is evidence for that? She just states it as if it's a brute fact, and almost no one seems to question it. I don't find any of this to be very enlightening.
lol this experiment was such bs. Aside from nothing about this being scientific at all, since there wasn't some kind of control group (just for a start), I could have told you what the result would have been before even starting because in the years 2000 there was still an extremely strong mentality of "raising boys as boys and girls as girls". At the time, boys were meant to do competitive sports, were meant to be aggressive, were taught that roughing each other and the area around them was just "boys will be boys", that they didn't need to bother learning how to keep a home because that's what girls were for. Girls on the other hand were raised to be all calm, social and quite. Were meant to learn how to cook, how to clean and keep the house. Even when they were mad, they had to hide it and still smile at people.
I do think you'd have to run this experiment several times to see if the results remain consistent. My guess is that the girls are more used to a lateral social structure, where they're all on the same level and therefore have to coordinate and convince each other. Boys seem to be more hierarchal. There was no leader or established structure to slot into, so all was chaos. They attempted to make a structure with the gang formation, but didn't do it very well. So I'm wondering how this would go if they did it again, but with a clear leader (like, one much older boy, or if they were 'officially' handed roles before being left, or there was one very charismatic, outspoken kid who just took over). I also wonder if the girl group would have a negative effect if they had a leader or were forced into a hierarchy. My hypothesis would be that putting them in a hierarchy would significantly increase the amount of mean girl behavior and infighting.
Maybe that's why the countries which have been led by women are in better shape recently. Iceland, Norway, Finland.
Gotta love that almost nobody is learning the lesson here... we raise our boys and girls differently, and ALL our children differently than in asian cultures. Bickering about girls making better leaders is the same tribalism the boys showed in forming gangs. Stop getting even, start getting better.
And we continue to promote at all costs patriarchy, male authority in all areas. I always wonder what would happen to countries ruled only by women, at all political and social levels... Maybe the end of the contests of who has the biggest and the disproportionate ego of men between them.
i am not surprised, boys are less mature in this age than girls, i consider both groups need parents to have a setting in life and follow rules, i usually let my son participate in all kind of cleaning and organizing household (to a less or more extent)
This isn't remotely surprising, if the boys had done a 180 from what they actually did, THAT would be surprising. The title states that the 2 parties were initially misjudged, no they were - the boys acted feral and the girl took responsibility for the upkeep as a unit, nothing surprising there.
This was an early example of trying to push the idea that males and masculinity are toxic. Both genders have extreme toxicity to them when studied.....
This isn't a fair experiment, especially if it's Western children used. By their age, the social norms of an unequal society have been drummed in, girls cook and clean, boys do f**k all. They already learned this from their parents and will emulate them. If this was a proper experiment, you'd need to use significantly younger children whose mannerismayare not yet established, but since they need carers at that age, it won't work anyway. Also all the ethical stuff.
They don't do that where I live. Girls are not treated different. 100 years ago, yes, but not even in the 70s.
Load More Replies... I'm not surpriced. When we had scout groups boys usually tried to kill each other and girls were ploting against each other. When we wanted to calm down boys usually some runnig game helped... for girls anything crafting was working.. SUPRISIGLY it is the same here... 5 days was too short to establish anything or to develop hierarchy, but could see one strog personality in each group, that wise one explaining behaviour of others
I was wondering if there might be bodily harm or worse with the children in the absence of parents, but it seems like if they were observed, some adult would have stepped in for that scenario... 🤔
Interestingly, during our month-long field trip with the university, the boy's quarters were always clean and presentable and it was the girls who managed to turn the whole place into a pigsty. Behaviour-wise as well, the girls acted like complete animals, while the boys were ok.
The boys went lord of the flies, but shout-out to Robert for standing up for himself and the other boys he was with
Found it interesting that both groups made a mess and started painting the walls the first night, and both groups had their early vs. late sleep schedule squabbles. The real difference seemed to be that the boys went for broke with destroying things while the girls were able to organize and mitigate chaos. Also, the girls did start fighting sooner than the boys, but were also faster to make it right again. Interesting too that 2 of the girls left early while all the boys stuck it out. Overall the boys house seemed more fun, but also way too chaotic. I was glad to see that both groups were able to come together and be supportive when someone got upset
As that one dude said. This all depends on the upbringing (parenting, environment etc). Make this experiment (a real one I mean) in different countries and the outcome will differ. I think he was right that Japan would have two very responsible groups. And I guess America in general would be similar to this right here. What I‘m wondering about is the rest of Europe and Asia. I could imagine Poland being like this but am not 100% sure. And isn‘t Spain rather a matriarchy? That makes it interesting. And of course I want to know the outcome in my own country, as I personally think/ hope we raise our children relatively gender neutral compared to some other countries. Oh, yeah, I think Northern Europe would do well. Can‘t explain why, though.
Gobsmacked that this can even be considered ethical or legal, even for reality TV.
This experiment should really be done to show guys and guys shouldn't be held to different requirements in life
One my jobs in schools was cleaning public bathrooms. As messy as the males could get, I only ever had to clean feces off the floor in the female bathroom.
I worked a midnight shift at McDonald's for 5 years, the men's bathroom was always fine the woman's bathroom ALWAYS looked like a tornado went through it.
Load More Replies... mothers have complained time and time again about their kids not listening to them but girls always turn out to be like their mothers anyways and boys turn out to be like their fathers. It's monkey see monkey do. It's not always the case but a lot of the times it is. Some of the boys I met who cook, clean etc., take after their dad because he did the same. One guy takes after his mom who was his only parent.
Sooo ... everybody is horrified of the boys but all of them stayed. Meanwhile the wonderful girls managed to have several of them leave the project.
Well... boys are not expected to get their feelings hurt which mught lead to qutting. They propably wanted to quit at some point.
Load More Replies... Well, I have 4 kids, two girls and two boys and I could imagine for sure that if the boys were left alone for so long, the house would be totally destroyed.
I've teached my sons how to cook and to clean, but I know if I going to leave them a couple of days alone, my house will be a disaster.
Load More Replies... Nobody 's asking who filmed that ? No unsupervised kid or fixed camera would capture this docu that way,
There were cameramen there and a permanent therapist in a room in the house who they could talk to.
Load More Replies... Nice article. It captures the essence of "girls good boys bad" propaganda spewed by today's media. It literally doesn't mention the major problems the girls had. Two of them literally had to leave the group.
I love how everyone is just perfectly okay with all the misandrist tweets. It's always the same thing, women are better than men. SMH. I didnt know anyone was better than anyone else. So much for believing in equality and respect for one another.
The comments aren't saying women are better. They're saying that girls are forced to mature faster because parents expect girls to be behaved and responsible. Not the girls fault and it's not misandrist to expect boys to be responsible too.
Load More Replies... The issue isnt so much that girls are expected to do more, the real issue is boys dont have anything to do. Im mexican, and in our culture the girls help mom in the home while the boys help dad in the fields. Well in the west the home still exists, but the fields dont. Also i would say that children like to help their parents. Little girls want to help mom bake a cake and boys want to help dad build the garden shed, but parents today are scared of everything so the boys arent allowed to help. Not only that, but the single mother rate in the uk is high. So when are these boys supposed to learn how to do man stuff? Now i know this is anecdotal evidence, but in my home we dont live like westerners. We own land and livestock, and grow our food. My boys help their dad fix fences, feed horses, build stuff, and my daughter helps in the home and garden. All of our kids a very responsible. Western culture is starting to have a man problem because of bored little boys.
The boys were given a cooking class and it doesn't take an apprenticeship to learn how to use soap and a rag and not draw on walls.
Load More Replies... As a US citizen, I absolutely detest little boys these days. Helicoptering and coddling has created a generation of cry baby little b*tches that can handle exactly ZERO adversity. Shame on Millenial parents for not stepping back and making your precious little boy actually deal with the world around him. Notes: I know this doesn't only apply to Millenials but they are clearly the majority of parents to young children in the here and now. I also know that there are exceptions but for every well behaved, appropriately mature male child I see, there are a dozen that behave years behind where they should be if not for the coddling.
It would be quite interesting to see them all now, I remember watching this when it aired in 2002, not 2017. All the kids would be around 32 years old now.
Load More Replies... I watched both videos, and this article is so slanted, it's wild. Bot groups painted on the walls the first day, and both felt bad and tried to clean it off. The girls succeeded because they knew what to put on it, but the boys went to great effort. Both held a meeting and created a chore chart, and both charts were largely ignored. The girls' did last longer, but the boys felt defeated from the start - probably because of the walls. Both groups fought and both groups tried to reconcile. The girls seem at first blush to be succeeding better at that, but then, two girls left the house before the end and a third locked herself in the bathroom for multiple hour-plus stints, so by that measure they utterly failed. I will say the girls did much, much better with food but the boys did try, they just didn't have enough experience in a kitchen to know what to do when things went off-book. It's not just about expectations through gender roles, but also about gender-influenced skills & training.
Bored Panda was very careful to blame gender roles these kids we’re taught. Huh? How about the far more obvious observation, males and females are inherently different. For thousands of years males were successful for very different reasons than females were successful. Stop denying this truth when, once again, it’s soo obvious.
I have always believed that males are more slobbish if left to their own devices, I'm a male, yes I would behave like this.
My brother is tidy from himself. He cleaned up my room, when I lived in a house with students and left a paper with: Congrats! You won the pig of the year award!
Load More Replies... No surprise here since the experiments played to the strengths of the girls and weakness of the boys. Not excusing the behaviour of the boys but restricting them to a building and expect everything to go well? Really? How do they expend all the energy that is geared towards exploring and facing challenges? What would happen if this was an outdoor camping scenario. Boys are given basic tools like fishing lines and hooks, ability to make fire, trap or hunt for small animals AND access to a building. In addition everyone be given a course in foraging, trapping, hunting, fishing, cooking cleaning, making basic shelter and then let's see what happens.
To be clear, I expected exactly what happened and I am not saying we wouldn't have the exact same results in a sound experiment, but if this counts as science, we're doomed
Load More Replies... Lmao yep because it's a gender thing to eat sugar all day and draw on the walls.
Load More Replies... It's no Kasper Hauser experiment. They were already socialized.
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