Being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in 18-month-old infants

Malinda Carpenter1, Johanna Uebel, Michael Tomasello

  • 1Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. carpenter@eva.mpg.de

Child Development
|March 16, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Mimicry in 18-month-old infants significantly boosts prosocial behavior. Infants who were mimicked were more likely to help adults, demonstrating early social benefits of imitation.

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