Feeling out a link between feeling and infant sociomoral evaluation

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Social Neuroscience
• Infant Cognition

Background:

• Infants demonstrate preferences for prosocial individuals early in life.
• The underlying mental processes driving these early social evaluations are not well understood.
• Emotions are known to influence sociomoral judgments in older children and adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of emotional reactions in infants' and toddlers' evaluations of prosocial versus antisocial behaviors.
• To determine if infants display distinct emotional responses to observed 'giving' (prosocial) versus 'taking' (antisocial) actions.

Main Methods:

• Four independent samples of infants and toddlers observed video clips of prosocial and antisocial interactions.
• Experimentally blind coders rated infants' emotional responses (negative to positive) using a Likert scale.
• A single-paper meta-analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of the findings.

Main Results:

• Infants and toddlers exhibited more positive emotional reactions after viewing prosocial acts compared to antisocial acts in three of the four samples.
• Although effect sizes were small, meta-analysis indicated findings were robust and stable across age.
• Blind coders could predict the type of observed act (prosocial vs. antisocial) based on infant facial expressions at a better-than-chance level.

Conclusions:

• Emotional reactions appear to play a role in early sociomoral evaluations by infants and toddlers.
• This study provides initial evidence for the contribution of emotion to infants' understanding of social interactions.
• Findings suggest that the foundations of sociomoral development, influenced by emotion, are present very early in life.