Kindness counts—even to a five-day-old baby
They’ve barely opened their eyes, but newborn babies already seem to prefer nice behaviours.
New research reveals that infants just five days old can tell the difference between two distinct forms of prosocial and antisocial behaviour—and they prefer the prosocial. This suggests that some parts of how humans understand and evaluate the social world may be built into the brain from birth.
“These babies have almost no experience with the social world, and yet they’re already picking up on friendly versus unfriendly interactions, on helping versus hindering. That could be telling us something really important about human nature,” said Dr. Kiley Hamlin, a professor in the department of psychology at the University of British Columbia who co-led the study with Dr. Alessandra Geraci, assistant professor in the department of educational sciences at the University of Catania (Italy). Luca Surian (University of Trento) and Lucia Gabriella Tina (ARNAS Garibaldi Hospital) were their co-authors.
Watching for acts of kindness
Researchers showed a total of 90 newborns sets of simple animated videos. In one, a ball struggled to climb a hill. Another ball helped push it up. In a second video, playing right next to the first, the second ball pushed the climber down the hill, preventing it from reaching the top. Infants’ eyes lingered longer on the helping scenario.
In another set of videos, one ball moved toward another as if trying to get close or say hello. In the other video, the ball moved away, like it was avoiding the other. Again, the newborns spent more time watching the friendly, approaching action.
To make sure the babies weren’t just reacting to movement, researchers showed control videos where balls were simply in motion with no implied social interaction. Babies didn’t show a preference for one video or the other.
“This tells us that babies aren’t just reacting to distinct patterns of motion,” Dr. Hamlin said. “They seem to be responding to the social meaning behind those motions.”
But can newborns even see well enough for this? Newborns have a reputation for poor vision, which Dr. Hamlin said is commonly misunderstood.
“Newborns don’t see well far away, but they can see pretty well up close—and motion captures their attention,” she said. “Our animations were presented right in front of babies’ faces, in high contrast, with simple motions that repeated over and over. That’s exactly the kind of thing newborns are good at detecting.”
A built-in social sense
This study builds on earlier work by Dr. Hamlin and others showing that older infants—around six to 10 months—prefer helpful characters. But this is the first demonstration in days-old babies, suggesting that these preferences aren’t learned.
“Five-day-old babies are asleep a lot of the time, and likely haven’t observed prosocial or antisocial behaviour. Even if they had, their poor distance vision means they probably couldn’t process the event unless it happened immediately in front of their face. Yet they still prefer to watch prosocial interactions over antisocial ones,” Dr. Hamlin said. “That makes it very unlikely they’ve learned this entirely from experience.”
What it means
These findings, published in Nature Communications, add weight to the idea that humans may be born with a basic sense of social goodness. That doesn’t mean babies are born knowing right from wrong in the way adults do—but the roots of social evaluation, and even moral understanding, may begin with these basic social preferences.
“There’s been a lot of debate about whether morality is learned or innate,” said Hamlin. “This study doesn’t settle that debate, but it certainly pushes the needle toward the idea that some parts of our moral sense are built in.”
Even before they can smile, speak or sit up, babies are already watching the world—and most are rooting for the good guys.
Journal
Nature Communications
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Human newborns spontaneously attend to prosocial interactions
Feeling more extroverted? Study finds you may have learned how to handle daily stress better
Peer-Reviewed Publication
EAST LANSING, Mich. – A new study led by Michigan State University found that as people get better at handling stress on a daily basis, they also become more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences over a nearly 20-year period. Likewise, the worse they manage daily stressors, the more introverted, unfriendly and closed off from new experiences they become.
The study, published in Psychology and Aging, is the largest and longest study to look at how managing stress on a daily basis may translate to personality.
The study involved over 2,000 people who completed daily diaries three times over an 18-year period (from midlife into older adulthood). Each time, participants reported on their personality traits, various types of stressors, and their emotional experiences for eight days. Researchers then employed a sophisticated statistical analysis to link how people dealt with daily stress to how their personality changed over those 20 years.
“Previous research has shown that your personality predicts how well you deal with daily stressors. The cool thing about this study is that, as you got better at handling stressors on a daily basis, you also became more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences over time. These improvements trickled up to affect how your personality changed over time,” said William Chopik, lead author of the study and associate professor in the MSU Department of Psychology.
“What that also means is that, if you got worse at managing daily stressors, you became more introverted, less agreeable/nice, and more closed off from new experiences over time.”
The researchers hope that people see this as a useful way to think about themselves and how they deal with stress.
“This study has the potential to give people a little bit of hope — if they’re able to find ways to regulate their emotions, that might accumulate and translate to changing their personalities. Being more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences all correlate with greater happiness,” said Chopik. “I’m hoping that people see that the decisions they make on a daily basis and how they frame them can potentially make them happier and maybe even change their personalities.”
Read on MSUToday.
By Shelly DeJong
###
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for 170 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
For generations, Spartans have been changing the world through research. Federal funding helps power many of the discoveries that improve lives and keep America at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness. From lifesaving cancer treatments to solutions that advance technology, agriculture, energy and more, MSU researchers work every day to shape a better future for the people of Michigan and beyond. Learn more about MSU’s research impact powered by partnership with the federal government.
For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or x.com/MSUnews.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – A new study led by Michigan State University found that as people get better at handling stress on a daily basis, they also become more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences over a nearly 20-year period. Likewise, the worse they manage daily stressors, the more introverted, unfriendly and closed off from new experiences they become.
The study, published in Psychology and Aging, is the largest and longest study to look at how managing stress on a daily basis may translate to personality.
The study involved over 2,000 people who completed daily diaries three times over an 18-year period (from midlife into older adulthood). Each time, participants reported on their personality traits, various types of stressors, and their emotional experiences for eight days. Researchers then employed a sophisticated statistical analysis to link how people dealt with daily stress to how their personality changed over those 20 years.
“Previous research has shown that your personality predicts how well you deal with daily stressors. The cool thing about this study is that, as you got better at handling stressors on a daily basis, you also became more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences over time. These improvements trickled up to affect how your personality changed over time,” said William Chopik, lead author of the study and associate professor in the MSU Department of Psychology.
“What that also means is that, if you got worse at managing daily stressors, you became more introverted, less agreeable/nice, and more closed off from new experiences over time.”
The researchers hope that people see this as a useful way to think about themselves and how they deal with stress.
“This study has the potential to give people a little bit of hope — if they’re able to find ways to regulate their emotions, that might accumulate and translate to changing their personalities. Being more extroverted, agreeable and open to new experiences all correlate with greater happiness,” said Chopik. “I’m hoping that people see that the decisions they make on a daily basis and how they frame them can potentially make them happier and maybe even change their personalities.”
Read on MSUToday.
By Shelly DeJong
###
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for 170 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
For generations, Spartans have been changing the world through research. Federal funding helps power many of the discoveries that improve lives and keep America at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness. From lifesaving cancer treatments to solutions that advance technology, agriculture, energy and more, MSU researchers work every day to shape a better future for the people of Michigan and beyond. Learn more about MSU’s research impact powered by partnership with the federal government.
For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or x.com/MSUnews.
Journal
Psychology and Aging
Psychology and Aging
DOI
Article Title
Interrelations between daily stress processes and Big Five personality trait changes over 20 years.
Interrelations between daily stress processes and Big Five personality trait changes over 20 years.
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