NEW BABY STUDY: BABIES ARE MEANIES AND BIASED

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I love reading up on new baby studies as I find them both humorous and informative.

This week a new study was released which showed that babies are biased too. 

Professor Kiley Hamlin of British –Colombia University studied nine and 14 month old babies at Yale University while he was a student there.

In the study he gave the children a choice between graham crackers and green beans to establish a preference. The babies where then showed a puppet show where one puppet selects a graham cracker and the other chose the green beans. In the show the puppet that picked the same food as them dropped a ball and the other puppet either returned the ball or stole it from them. The babies preferred the puppets that were nice and helpful to the puppet that chose the same food as they did in the first puppet show.

The babies were shown another show where the puppet who drops the ball is the one who picked the opposite food as the babies, they showed a preference for the puppet that was mean to the puppet that chose a different snack to them. Almost every baby in the study showed a clear preference for the puppet that was mean to the puppet that liked the other food.

The study concludes that babies prefer those who are like them and agree with picking on those who are different.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

Has your child acted mean or surprising to you?