If you think babies have no idea what’s going on around them, then you thought wrong. Babies can identify their surroundings and differentiate who is friend and foe as early nine months!
According to our source, a group of researchers concluded that the infants might have some early understanding on social alliances as early as nine month old.
The researchers had babies aged 9-14 months to choose between graham crackers and green beans. The babies then watched a puppet show in which the the puppets demonstrated their food preferences.
The result shows that babies embrace those who pick on individuals who harmed the ‘different’ one and helped the ‘similar’ one. Prof Kiley Hamlin from from University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology said, “Our research shows that by nine months, babies are busy assessing their surroundings, trying to determine who is friend or foe. One important way they make these distinctions is based on perceived differences and similarities.”
Hamlin describes the behaviour as an early form of the powerful, persistent social biases that exist in most adults who favoured individuals with more things in common.
Source: Xinhua