If you're a parent you've heard it before, when one of your kids gets something from you --- money or a present, even a Slurpee from 7-11, your other child immediately wants to know “where’s mine?” As parents, of course, we always treat all of our kids equally, right? Or do we?
Rutgers University marketing professor Kristina Durante and her colleagues tested that theory.
“We were having parents enter a lottery to win a treasury bond worth $25," she explained. "And they had to tell us with a name which of their children they would give the treasury bond to."
The parents could only enter once and had to choose between their girl or their boy for the potential winnings. Moms chose daughters. Dads chose their sons.
“It suggests that we do play favorites, even if we don’t think that we do," she said.