Ava Newall likes science, but at age eight she already is facing greater hurdles to a career in the field than her brother.

A new study has found that adults assume eight-year-old girls have less aptitude for physics than boys. They also use less scientific terminology when teaching girls about science than they use when giving lessons to male students.

Ava Newall with her mother Carol. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Led by Ava's mother, senior lecturer in early childhood at Macquarie University Carol Newall, the researchers also found that adults believed girls had less interest in science if they liked ''feminine'' things such as tea parties and the colour pink.

None of the adults involved in the study consciously believed girls were less competent, but their actions betrayed an unconscious bias, said Dr Newall. ''It's cultural," she said. "I do it too. There are occasions when I pick up a construction toy for my son.