A baby boy with a pacifier in his mother's arms (© Mike Kemp/Blend Images/Getty Images)

Sucking on pacifiers may end up hurting guys' ability to be emotional

9/20/2012

Turns out there might be a reason why men tend to be less emotionally intelligent than women. A new study reveals sucking on a pacifier can actually stunt the emotional development of baby boys. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that pacifiers deprive infant boys of the chance to mimic facial expressions an important tool in learning things like empathy (also known as tapping into other people's feelings, guys) and being able to identify their own feelings. Researchers suggest that because girls develop earlier in some ways, they might make enough progress in emotional development before pacifiers are used and aren't affected by them in the same way as boys. [Source]

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Will this make you change your use of pacifiers?