Reverse psychology is often used to help people get their own way but when it comes to teenage girls and babies, a study proves nothing can beat the maternal instinct.

In WA, 3000 teenage schoolgirls took part in a program between 2003 and 2006, in which they cared for robot babies. The hope was that they would be put off a teenage pregnancy. However, the program hasn't quite gone to plan, with a study, published in The Lancet, finding that teenage pregnancies actually increased as a result.

The Virtual Infant Program (VIP), which is still widely used overseas, saw half the girls given a robot baby, reflective of the behaviours of a six-week-old to care for over the weekend, while the other half received standard health education. The girls were tracked until they were 20 and the study has revealed that 17 per cent who had the robot babies to care for went on to have teenage pregnancies, while only 11 per cent of the health education group fell pregnant.

Of the group who cared for the robot babies, fewer went on to have abortions as a result of their pregnancies – 53.8 per cent compared to 60.1 in the other group.

The program was stopped in 2007 when initial findings suggested it wasn’t working – it seems the girls with the robot babies enjoyed the attention of family and friends.