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Feeling out a link between feeling and infant sociomoral evaluation
Author(s) -
Steckler Conor M.,
Liberman Zoe,
Van de Vondervoort Julia W.,
Slevinsky Janine,
Le Doan T.,
Hamlin J. Kiley
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12232
Subject(s) - prosocial behavior , psychology , developmental psychology , feeling , empathy , toddler , social psychology
Recent research has shown that infants selectively approach prosocial versus antisocial characters, suggesting that foundations of sociomoral development may be present early in life. Despite this, to date, the mental processes involved in infants’ prosocial preferences are poorly understood. To explore a possible role of emotions in early social evaluations, the current studies examined whether four samples of infants and toddlers express different emotional reactions after observing prosocial (giving) versus antisocial (taking) events. Experimentally blind coders rated infants’ and toddlers’ emotional reactions to prosocial and antisocial interactions from video using a 1‐ to 7‐point Likert scale of negative to positive emotion; reactions were rated as more positive after viewing prosocial compared to antisocial interactions in three of four samples. While the observed effects were small, a single‐paper meta‐analysis suggests that the findings are robust and stable across age. These results support the possibility that emotional reactions play some role in infants’ sociomoral evaluations.Statement of contribution What is already knownInfants prefer prosocial to antisocial individuals from the first year of life. Emotion plays some role in the sociomoral judgments of children and adults.What this study addsInfants and toddlers express more positive reactions after observing prosocial giving versus antisocial taking acts, though observed effect sizes are small. Naïve coders can predict at a better than chance rate what type of act an infant or toddler just viewed based on their facial expressions. Provides the first evidence that emotion plays some to‐be‐specified role in infants’ and toddlers’ sociomoral evaluations.