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Social evaluation by preverbal infants

Author

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  • J. Kiley Hamlin

    (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA)

  • Karen Wynn

    (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA)

  • Paul Bloom

    (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA)

Abstract

Morality starts young The key to successful social interactions is the ability to assess others' intentions — be they friend or foe. A new study in 6- and 10-month-old infants shows that humans engage in social evaluations even earlier than was thought, before they can use language. The infants could evaluate actors on the basis of their social acts — they were drawn towards an individual who helps an unrelated third party to achieve his or her goal, and they avoided an individual who hinders a third party's efforts to achieve a goal. The findings support the claim that precursors to adult-like social evaluation are present even in babies. This skill could be a biological adaptation that may also serve as the foundation for moral thought and action later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Kiley Hamlin & Karen Wynn & Paul Bloom, 2007. "Social evaluation by preverbal infants," Nature, Nature, vol. 450(7169), pages 557-559, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:450:y:2007:i:7169:d:10.1038_nature06288
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06288
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    Cited by:

    1. John Hartwick, 2010. "Encephalization and division of labor by early humans," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 77-100, July.
    2. Young-eun Lee & Jung-eun Ellie Yun & Eun Young Kim & Hyun-joo Song, 2015. "The Development of Infants’ Sensitivity to Behavioral Intentions when Inferring Others’ Social Preferences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Geoffrey Hodgson, 2014. "The evolution of morality and the end of economic man," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 83-106, January.
    4. Mitsuhiko Ishikawa & Yun-hee Park & Michiteru Kitazaki & Shoji Itakura, 2017. "Social information affects adults’ evaluation of fairness in distributions: An ERP approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-13, February.
    5. Miguel Angel Fuentes & Juan Pablo Cárdenas & Natalia Carro & Mariana Lozada, 2018. "Development and Complex Dynamics at School Environment," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-10, December.
    6. Fernando P Santos & Francisco C Santos & Jorge M Pacheco, 2016. "Social Norms of Cooperation in Small-Scale Societies," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, January.
    7. Zhao, Liang, 2008. "Rethinking basically Economic Assumption on Individual Behavior from Empirical Viewpoints of Evolution and Behavior," MPRA Paper 11152, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Pablo Medina & Eric Goles & Roberto Zarama & Sergio Rica, 2017. "Self-Organized Societies: On the Sakoda Model of Social Interactions," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2017, pages 1-16, January.
    9. Jessica Bregant & Alex Shaw & Katherine D. Kinzler, 2016. "Intuitive Jurisprudence: Early Reasoning About the Functions of Punishment," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 693-717, December.
    10. Marek Meristo & Luca Surian, 2014. "Infants Distinguish Antisocial Actions Directed towards Fair and Unfair Agents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-7, October.
    11. Liang, Zhao, 2009. "Reexamination of Individual Knowledge and Common Behavior Rules: A Cross-disciplinary View Based on Empirical Evidences," MPRA Paper 20050, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Manasi Malik & Leyla Isik, 2023. "Relational visual representations underlie human social interaction recognition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Elena Nava & Emanuela Croci & Chiara Turati, 2019. "‘I see you sharing, thus I share with you’: indirect reciprocity in toddlers but not infants," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Gabriele Chierchia & Fabio Tufano & Giorgio Coricelli, 2017. "Friends or Strangers? Strategic Uncertainty and Cooperation across Experimental Games of Strategic Complements and Substitutes," Discussion Papers 2017-03, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    15. Arian Petoft & Mahmoud Abbasi, 2022. "Children’s Criminal Perception; Lessons from Neurolaw," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(5), pages 1905-1920, October.
    16. Yasuhiro Kanakogi & Michiko Miyazaki & Hideyuki Takahashi & Hiroki Yamamoto & Tessei Kobayashi & Kazuo Hiraki, 2022. "Third-party punishment by preverbal infants," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(9), pages 1234-1242, September.
    17. Yin Wang & Antonia F de C Hamilton, 2013. "Understanding the Role of the ‘Self’ in the Social Priming of Mimicry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-11, April.
    18. Rahul Sur, 2020. "The Logical Case for Love as an Ingredient in Policy Formulation After COVID‐19," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(5), pages 636-646, November.
    19. Elena Vaporova & Norbert Zmyj, 2020. "Social evaluation and imitation of prosocial and antisocial agents in infants, children, and adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.
    20. Claire Holvoet & Thomas Arciszewski & Céline Scola & Delphine Picard, 2018. "Infants’ Visual Preferences for Prosocial Behavior and Other-Race Characters at 6 Months: An Eye-Tracking Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, June.
    21. Molnar-Szakacs, Istvan, 2011. "From actions to empathy and morality - A neural perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 76-85, January.
    22. Mark D. Ramirez, 2021. "Understanding public blame attributions when private contractors are responsible for civilian casualties," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 21-40, March.
    23. Fazekas, Károly, 2016. "Tisztesség, empátia, közgazdaságtan [Honour, empathy and economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1120-1141.
    24. J Kiley Hamlin & Andrew S Baron, 2014. "Agency Attribution in Infancy: Evidence for a Negativity Bias," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-8, May.

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