Babies develop a preference for their primary caregiver, who is usually the mother.
Young children generally are more cautious around men than women, which is probably good risk management. Instinctive? Possibly.
Young children generally are more cautious around men than women, which is probably good risk management. Instinctive? Possibly.
Is it, though? This data [0] says otherwise.
[0]: http://www.breakingthescience.org/SimplifiedDataFromDHHS.php
A more neutral source:
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf
… which suggests the opposite (but there’s not much in it).
In terms of broader risks, males commit a clear majority of violent offences and a vast majority of sexual offences.
This isn’t even just a human thing. Male primates (and mammals generally) exhibit more aggressive behavior than females. It’s probably a deep consequence of anisogamous sexual differentiation:
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169...