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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Social evaluation by preverbal infants.

J Kiley Hamlin¹, Karen Wynn, Paul Bloom

¹Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA. kiley.hamlin@yale.edu

|November 23, 2007

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Infants as young as 6 months can evaluate others based on their actions toward third parties. This early social evaluation ability, observed in preverbal infants, may form the basis of morality.

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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

Published on: October 4, 2015

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Social Cognition
Evolutionary Psychology

Background:

Social evaluation is crucial for navigating complex social environments.
While adults rapidly assess individuals, the developmental origins of this capacity are unclear.
Understanding early social evaluation informs theories of moral development.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether preverbal infants evaluate individuals based on their behavior towards others.
To determine the developmental emergence of social evaluation in infancy.

Main Methods:

Infants (6 and 10 months old) were presented with scenarios involving individuals exhibiting helping, hindering, or neutral behaviors towards a third party.
Infant preferences were measured by observing their looking times or choices between individuals.

Main Results:

Infants preferred individuals who helped others over those who hindered others.
Infants showed a preference for helping individuals compared to neutral individuals.
Infants preferred neutral individuals over hindering individuals.

Conclusions:

Preverbal infants evaluate individuals based on their prosocial or antisocial actions towards others.
This early capacity for social evaluation suggests a biological basis for moral judgment.
The findings support the view that social evaluation is an evolved adaptation supporting social navigation.