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Young infants are pro‐victims, but it depends on the context
Author(s) -
Uzefovsky Florina,
Paz Yael,
Davidov Maayan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/bjop.12402
Subject(s) - psychology , context (archaeology) , compassion , distress , developmental psychology , preference , character (mathematics) , clinical psychology , paleontology , geometry , mathematics , political science , law , economics , biology , microeconomics
The current study examined whether and when young infants are sensitive to distressed others, using two experiments with a forced‐choice paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that 5‐ to 9‐month‐old infants demonstrate a clear pro‐victim preference: Infants preferred a distressed character that had been physically harmed over a matched neutral character. Experiment 2 showed that infants’ preference for a distressed other is not invariable, but rather depends on the context: Infants no longer preferred the distressed character when it expressed the exact same distress but for no apparent reason. These findings have implications for the early ontogeny of human compassion and morality, addressed in the discussion.