Posted on 11/21/2007 7:53:42 PM PST by blam
Babies 'can tell friend from foe'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 21/11/2007
Babies as young as six months old are able to tell friend from foe, according to a study that suggests our sense of right and wrong develops long before formal teaching.
Social animals, including humans, need to be able to rapidly distinguish whom they can trust from those they cannot in order to cooperate, thrive and survive.
Babies seem to know the 'good guys' from the bad Indeed, it could be that it is part of our nature to know the difference between right and wrong, rather than a product of nurture. Today's research shows that this instinct is so fundamental to our survival that we are able to spot a good Samaritan, even before we are able to talk.
In the new issue of the journal Nature, Kiley Hamlin of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and her colleagues report a clever way to seek the birth of our moral compass by testing the reaction of babies to "good", "neutral" and "bad" wooden toys.
They showed 6- and 10- month old babies one character who tried but failed to reach the top of a steep hill. Babies were then shown a second, helpful triangular character, who pushed the climber up the hill, and a third, unhelpful square character, who pushed the climber back to the bottom of the hill.
The characters were colourful wooden shapes with "googly eyes" to ensure that the babies were kept interested in their antics.
After the baby viewed the unhelpful and helpful characters aid or prevent the climber from achieving its goal, they were offered a choice between the helper and the hinderer.
What is remarkable is that the babies "strongly preferred" the character who had been helpful rather than unhelpful. They seem to know the "good guys" from the bad.
This supports the view that our ability to tell good from bad is universal and unlearned. "We can't say that babies are born with this - just that they have it by six months," she told The Daily Telegraph.
"It is present before language and explicit teaching, yes, but perhaps not there exactly from the start."
These results of experiments with Profs Karen Wynn and Paul Bloom suggest that the ability to distinguish those who may help us from those who may harm us is "central to processing the social world."
The fact that babies may have a sense of right and wrong far earlier than previously thought could be a biological adaptation that may also serve as the foundation for moral thought and action later in life, they speculate.
The ability to tell helpful from unhelpful people, and to favour the former was undoubtedly essential for our ancestors in activities such as group hunting, food sharing, and warfare.
Where’s that picture of a baby getting ready to punch Mrs. Clinton?
CHICK FIGHT!! CHICK FIGHT!!!
Maybe babies just like triangles. Wonder if they tested for that.
LBT
......
Exactly. Hopefully they did another test that used helpful squares and abusive triangles.
Duh.
Babies as young as six months old are able to tell friend from foe,
But Democrats can’t. They still embrace Islam.
AHAHAHHAHAHAHahahhahaha I never saw that one..Too funny
This picture is 30 years old but can there be any doubt that my 3 month old daughter already loves being held by her Grandma?
Children CAN tell because they are still going on inherent infinite instinct that hasn't yet been submerged in the ever encroaching finite mind of man
Toxic Cute Levels At Lethal Intensity!!!
I’m curious as to what good this would do a baby since there is nothing they can do about it. Are they going to refuse to to cooperate with the bad person?
So, the six month olds and the ten month olds chose the helpful figure rather than the disruptive figure. Smart babies. Glad to read of this research. It’s consistent with my own observations.
What a touching picture. Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
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