Cake or Broccoli?

A small bowl of chopped broccoli on top of a wooden cutting board

Toddlers – they always seem to get the last word!

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying…

Heads or tails? When adults are asked this, eighty percent pick heads. The FIRST option. But what about toddlers – which would they choose?

Emily Sumner from the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues looked for an answer. The team asked twenty-four toddlers “this or that” questions. Apples or bananas? Yellow or red? Burger or Pizza?

The results? Eighty percent of the time toddlers chose the option mentioned LAST! If you asked “Yellow or Red”, they would say “Red”! BUT if you asked “Red or Yellow”, the reply would be “Yellow!” 

This research helps us understand how language develops. 

So next time you want to impress your friends, ask your little one, “cake – or broccoli?” 

Of course, that doesn’t mean they will actually EAT the broccoli. They’re not THAT easy to fool!