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Related Experiment Video

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Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

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Published on: April 28, 2016

Do infants detect indirect reciprocity?

Marek Meristo1, Luca Surian

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Box 500, 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden. marek.meristo@gu.se

Cognition
|July 27, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Ten-month-old infants understand indirect reciprocity, expecting third parties to favor fair donors. This expectation only occurred when the third party observed the initial fair or unfair distribution of resources.

Keywords:
FairnessInfancyReciprocitySocial cognitionTheory of mind

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Evolutionary Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Indirect reciprocity, where an agent's prosocial actions enhance their reputation and elicit positive responses from third parties, is crucial for the evolution of morality.
  • Understanding the origins of fairness and reputation-based social judgments is key to explaining prosocial behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether 10-month-old infants understand indirect reciprocity and can evaluate agents based on fairness.
  • To determine if infants expect third parties to reward fair behavior, even without direct interaction.

Main Methods:

  • Infants were shown scenarios where a donor distributed resources either equally (fair) or unequally (unfair) between two recipients.
  • Infants' looking times and behavioral responses were measured to infer their expectations about a third party's subsequent actions towards the donor.
  • A control condition assessed whether the third party's prior observation of the distribution was necessary for infants' expectations.

Main Results:

  • Infants expected a third party to act positively towards fair donors, not unfair ones.
  • This expectation was contingent on the third party having visually perceived the initial distribution event.
  • Infants demonstrated an ability to evaluate fairness and predict reputation-based social preferences.

Conclusions:

  • Infants as young as 10 months possess rudimentary expectations about indirect reciprocity and fairness.
  • Early developing social cognition includes the ability to assess actions and anticipate third-party judgments based on reputation.
  • These findings suggest that the foundations for understanding reputation and fairness are present very early in human development.