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.
I’ll ditto your observation. If a dog don’t like you, there has got to be a reason.
Dogs are usually smarter than they look (’cept for those goofy dustmop dogs...)
Thanks for the comments. My Mother and Father loved all their grandchildred, (more than a dozen of them) but Mother told me more than once that Lesley was special to her.
That little baby grew up to be a beautiful girl, now married with children of her own and is now working on her PHD in literature. She won awards while in Grammar school for writing. Nearly all her early stories were about her Grandma.
My Mother died on Lesley’s birthday.
Sweet. Happy Thanksgiving.
moral of the story = even a 6 month old knows that Shrillery is a threat to humanity!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.