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Best friends: children use mutual gaze to identify friendships in others
Author(s) -
Nurmsoo Erika,
Einav Shiri,
Hood Bruce M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01143.x
Subject(s) - psychology , gaze , friendship , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychoanalysis
This study examined children’s ability to use mutual eye gaze as a cue to friendships in others. In Experiment 1, following a discussion about friendship, 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐year‐olds were shown animations in which three cartoon children looked at one another, and were told that one target character had a best friend. Although all age groups accurately detected the mutual gaze between the target and another character, only 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds used this cue to infer friendship. Experiment 2 replicated the effect with 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds when the target character was not explicitly identified. Finally, in Experiment 3, where the attribution of friendship could only be based on synchronized mutual gaze, 6‐year‐olds made this attribution, while 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds did not. Children occasionally referred to mutual eye gaze when asked to justify their responses in Experiments 2 and 3, but it was only by the age of 6 that reference to these cues correlated with the use of mutual gaze in judgements of affiliation. Although younger children detected mutual gaze, it was not until 6 years of age that children reliably detected and justified mutual gaze as a cue to friendship.