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Updated: May 27, 2026
08:22
Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Toddlers - Resting and Developmental Challenges
Published on: February 25, 2016
How infants and toddlers react to antisocial others
J Kiley Hamlin1, Karen Wynn, Paul Bloom
1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4. kiley.hamlin@psych.ubc.ca
Summary
Infants
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Social cognition
- Moral reasoning
Background:
- Adults exhibit selective social evaluations, favoring helpfulness but also approving antisocial acts towards disliked individuals.
- Understanding the developmental origins of these nuanced social judgments is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of selective social evaluation in infants and toddlers.
- To determine when infants begin to differentiate social behaviors based on the target's characteristics.
Main Methods:
- Observational studies presenting infants and toddlers with scenarios involving characters exhibiting prosocial and antisocial behaviors.
- Tracking infant preferences and toddler behavioral responses to different social interactions.
Main Results:
- 5-month-old infants showed uniform preference for positive behaviors.
- 8-month-old infants demonstrated selective preferences, favoring positive actions towards prosocial individuals and negative actions towards antisocial individuals.
- Young toddlers exhibited directed positive and negative behaviors towards prosocial and antisocial others, respectively.
Conclusions:
- Nuanced social judgments and actions observed in adults have early developmental foundations.
- Selective social evaluation emerges during infancy, influenced by target characteristics.
- Cognitive mechanisms for complex social assessment are present from early development.
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