In a society (presumably Asian) where sons are preferred over daughters, couples adopt the following heuristic when reproducing:
- If the new-born is a daughter, try for a new child
- When the couple finally gets a son (even if it's the first), stop.
Under the following assumption:
- Fertility doesn't decrease regardless of number of children
- Equal probability of getting a son or a daughter
Would we expect the society to have more daughters, more sons or equal (in one generation)?
- side note: I find this problem interesting because the intuitive answers that people come up with can be vastly different. Also, can you come up with a convincing/correct proof without involving difficult math/probability?