Caring babies: Concern for others in distress during infancy
Maayan Davidov1, Yael Paz1, Ronit Roth-Hanania2
1The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Developmental Science
|July 11, 2020
Summary
Infants show concern for distressed others early in life, challenging prior stage theories of empathy development. This early empathic concern is consistent and predicts later prosocial behavior.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Social-emotional development
- Infant behavior
Background:
- Concern for distressed others is a key human capacity.
- Little is known about the early development (ontogeny) of empathic concern.
- Previous theories proposed distinct stages of empathy development, which is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the onset, consistency, development, and predictive power of early empathic concern.
- Examine infant responses to others' distress.
- Challenge existing stage-based theories of empathy development.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 165 Israeli infants from 3 to 18 months of age.
- Observed infant responses to witnessed distress in others.
- Assessed consistency of concern across situations and age.
Main Results:
- Empathic concern observed as early as 3 months of age, earlier than previously assumed.
- Moderate consistency in empathic concern across situations and age.
- Concern for others showed modest growth, while prosocial behavior increased significantly in the second year.
- Early empathic concern predicted later prosocial behavior.
Conclusions:
- Empathic concern has early developmental roots, appearing much earlier than stage theories suggest.
- Development of concern is gradual, not strictly stage-based.
- Early empathic concern is a significant predictor of later prosocial actions.
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