Why DO kings trump queens in a deck of cards? Fascinating social experiment challenges outdated rules which 'blindly teach children that boys are better than girls'

A fascinating social experiment has set out to challenge a group of adults on why the king outranks the queen in a traditional pack of playing cards.

In the 60-second film, five young girls play a simple game of 'highest card wins' against an adult - and take their opponents to task on the outdated rules.

Traditionally, a king or an ace is the highest-ranking card in a standard 52-card deck.

But one man tells his young opponent that his king trumps her queen - and he is therefore the winner - she asks him to explain why.

Each of the adult participants is stumped when asked to explain why those were the rules, with one saying: 'A king outranks a queen.'

Others are left scratching their heads, with one woman admitting: 'I don't know.'

One of the little girls hits back, saying: 'Just because they're a different gender doesn't mean that the king should win.'

After much pressing from the little girls, each player agrees to change the rules so that the queen would trump the king instead.

Filmed by FCB Inferno - the agency behind This Girl Can - the film is part of a campaign called #QueenRules and aims to 'raise important questions about what we subconsciously teach children about gender'.

The experiment set out to see how adults would deal with 'gender bias': Would they blindly teach children that boys are better than girls, or would they change the rules?

Inspired by a real conversation with a five-year-old girl about why kings were 'better' than queens in a standard 52-card deck, producers asked each adult to teach a small girl a simple card game.

The short video was produced by Archer's Mark and directed by Libby Burke Wilde, with producer Jo-Jo Ellison ensuring each department was made up of women – from the cinematographer to the colourist.

The #QueenRules project launched on International Women's Day and hopes to encourage a new way to play cards where the queen outranks the king.

Simultaneous live events and poker tournaments took place around the world to mark the official launch of the new rules, using limited edition decks of cards illustrated by female artists.  

The agency said it hopes to challenging people to change how they think and play with the new rules.

FCB Global's CCO Susan Credle said: 'A father is asked by his five-year-old daughter why the king is a better card than the queen. 

'And this campaign was his answer. Unconscious bias slowly, subtlety shapes who we become. Listening to how someone else views the world empowers us all.'