Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula, and the Cereal Gender Gap
And for the academic research one ought never have had funded: "You are what your mother eats: evidence for maternal preconception diet influencing foetal sex in humans". I can't possibly thank Brandon Keim of Wired Science Blog enough for bringing this research to my attention.
Sadly, it turned out that not only did this research get funded, but it also turned out that the research was not correct. As it turns out, eating breakfast cereal in the morning resulted in more boys being born than girls--but it was statistically insignificant that 56% of high-fructose cereal eating moms gave birth to boys. Cereal didn't make a difference in the fetal sex--outcomes all fell within the margin of error.
Now that we know this observed result was just a false positive: why can't I put forth my own, just as silly hypothesis? Perhaps it is the complete lack of female mascots on cereal boxes that results in the higher birth rate for boys versus girls? The in utero influence of Tony the Tiger, Cap'n Crunch, Trix the Rabbit, Count Chocula.....I could go on. Try to think of a female cereal mascot. Try it. There isn't one. That's just as likely to account for the 6% difference in gender as anything else--since it is random variation after all.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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