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How do toddlers evaluate defensive actions toward third parties?

Alessandra Geraci1

  • 1Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|October 6, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Toddlers understand and evaluate defensive actions, preferring those who defend themselves. This early prosociality, evident before age two, is linked to sophisticated psychological reasoning and moral principles.

Keywords:
defensive behaviorsevaluationpsychological reasoningretributive justicesociomoral development

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Cognition
  • Moral Development

Background:

  • Defensive behavior is crucial for social interactions, benefiting individuals and groups.
  • Infants demonstrate the ability to assess third-party prosocial and antisocial actions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate toddlers' reactions to defensive versus non-defensive events.
  • To determine if young children evaluate defensive actions and understand their implications.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments involving 54 toddlers (20-month-olds).
  • Measured infants' looking times and manual choices in response to puppet scenarios depicting defensive and non-defensive actions.
  • Assessed toddlers' awarding behaviors towards puppets based on their actions.

Main Results:

  • 20-month-olds preferred a defensive puppet over a non-defensive one, indicating an understanding of defensive actions.
  • Toddlers reasoned about the disposition of bystander puppets.
  • Children rewarded the defensive puppet more than the non-defensive puppet, showing evaluations guided behavior.

Conclusions:

  • Toddlers possess a sophisticated psychological reasoning and understand moral principles before their second year.
  • Early prosociality is developmentally stable and linked to the evaluation of defensive behaviors.
  • The capacity for social evaluation of defensive actions may stem from evolved cooperative systems.