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I am reading an article about the effects of mother's blood pressure on the gender of the child. the following sentence was in the context that I have no idea what the author means:

Those who had a female child had an average systolic blood pressure of 103.3mmHg before
pregnancy, while for mothers of males the figure was 106, about 2.6 per cent higher.

Fundamental biology means there is generally a 50/50 split in the sex ratio,
although in humans there is a slight bias towards males.

Please let me know what this part means: there is a slight bias towards males

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  • Please include the research you've done, or consider if your question suits our English Language Learners site better. Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic.
    – Hot Licks
    Jan 15, 2017 at 14:06

1 Answer 1

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there is a slight bias towards males

Out of every 1000 baby born, 512 of them will be boys, instead of the 500 you'd expect. The human reproductive system is "biased" (favoring one sex over the other) towards producing males.

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  • Alan Greenspan used to talk about a "neutral bias." There's nothing wrong with talking about a slight bias, but as I see it when a bias gets to zero, it's no longer a bias, neutral or otherwise.
    – Airymouse
    Jan 15, 2017 at 14:26

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