Yale study shows insight into infants

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Harry Potter and Voldemort. Batman and the Joker. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Distinguishing between heroes and villains might be second nature to many of us, but can infants do the same?\nResearchers at Yale University found that infants as young as six months old can not only discriminate between the “good guys” and the “bad guys,” but they overwhelmingly prefer the good guys. This capacity for social evaluation appears earlier than anyone expected, backing the claim that it is an important biological adaptation and thus hardwired into our DNA.\n“We were shocked by the strength of the responses,” said J. Kiley Hamlin of Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center, the lead researcher of the study. “We thought infants would be sensitive to the behavior of others, but didn’t anticipate the extent of this.”\nNestled on their parents’ laps, 12 6-month-old babies and 16 10-month-old babies watched a puppet show in which three colorful blocks, humanized by large googly eyes, played the roles of “climber,” “helper” and “hinderer.” The babies watched as a yellow triangle struggled to climb a green hill before being either shouldered up by a “helper” red square or sent tumbling back down by an aggressive blue circle. \nAt the end of the show, the researchers asked the babies to choose between the square or the circle from a tray in front of them, and the “helper” was chosen almost every time.