Why male is our default gender

It’s still a man’s world, a bias revealed in phrases about humanity as “measure of man” or “man shall not live by bread alone,” or the ubiquitous use of pronoun “he” even when subject is not identifiable as a man or woman.

A trio of Yale psychologists have developed theories about why kids identify stuffed animals as male, medical research historically relied on male subjects, and office temperature is set to a man’s comfort level.

April Bailey, Marianne LaFrance, and John Dovidio argue that male’s primary possession of power is one explanation, but has an ally in our own cognitive systems, which tend to make male our default gender. They have published their ideas in journal Review of Personality and Social Psychology.