Study: Babies Make Social Judgements

[Athena-Nadine]

From here (http://news.aol.com/story/_a/babies-may-make-social-judgments/n20071121130709990013)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Even infants can tell the difference between naughty and nice playmates, and know which to choose, a new study finds.

Babies as young as 6 to 10 months old showed crucial social judging skills before they could talk, according to a study by researchers at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center published in Thursday's journal Nature.

Interesting. I think anyone who has children or spends/spent a good deal of time around them already knows this.

[RainInanna]

I was thinking they were picking up on energy but obviously no since it was toys. Interesting.

My baby's social evaluation of most other babies his age is "hey you're sitting still, I can use you to pull up on". :lol:

[Lunacie]

Interesting research, it may help in the future to find the kids who have Autism and have no interest in anything social so that they can get into helpful programs sooner.

[banondraig]

Interesting research, it may help in the future to find the kids who have Autism and have no interest in anything social so that they can get into helpful programs sooner.

ah, good thought.

[aluokaloo]

cool beans!

[Morr]

I noticed that.

Scarlet is very good with strangers and people in general. But she will smile more and respond more to some than others. Of course, at her age, it depends a lot on her current mood as well.

I noticed it with her toys though too...
On her bouncer she has 3 toys hanging in front of her to look at when she's sitting in it -- 1 blue elephent, 1 yellow lion, and 1 green elephent.

She totally ignores the yellow lion, always has. She used to have a love affair with the blue elephent for weeks. She would talk to it, smile, laugh at it, and generally just stare at it for long periods of time just smiling and making cute baby noises towards it.

Now, though, she ignores the blue one, and is absolutely loving the green one. She does the same things -- talk to it, laugh, giggle, drool a lot LOL, and now she started reaching towards it and trying to grab it.

I think it's interesting.