Babies Prefer Good Samaritans

I’ve been dedicating so much blog space to the Generous December Group Writing Project that I feel like I’ve been neglecting my childbirth recovery mandate. Turns out, the two subjects aren’t so very far apart after all.

If you’re popular with babies, it may mean you’re on the right track to developing a good character.

Babies can tell the difference between helpers and hinderers, says a new study from the Yale University Infant Cognition Center.

Using a series of short puppet shows, researchers learned that babies between the ages of 6 and 10 months could tell the difference between shape “characters” who helped others and those who hindered their progress up a hill.

“Babies are very competent socially. They can figure this out without people explicitly teaching them what’s nice and not nice and who’s nice and who’s not nice,” said lead researcher Kiley Hamlin said

The results were published in the journal Nature earlier this month. Special thanks to Allison the Thon fan for the tip.