Psychologists from Harvard University, the University of California, and the University of Copenhagen have found thatchildren under one year have a notion of social hierarchyand they consider thatthe strongest and greatest is the one who commands, according to an article published today in the magazineScience.
To reach this conclusion, psychologist Lotte Thomsen and her colleagues have analyzed how childrenrelate size to power, a ubiquitous correlation in all human cultures and also in the animal kingdom. “Kings and chiefs traditionally sit on large, elevated thrones, wear elaborate crowns or robes that make them appear larger than they really are, and their subordinates kneel to show respect to these superior human beings,” Thomsen noted. In addition, many animals, such as birds and cats, “puff up” to appear physically older to an adversary and prostrate to show submission. “Our work suggests that even with the limited pre-verbal socialization of human infants, they can understand such displays,” he said.
In their experiments, the researchers studied thereactions of children between 8 and 16 monthsby seeing how cartoon characters of different sizes interacted. The researchers showed the babies videos showing two different-sized blocks, with eyes and mouths, moving in different directions. Next, the blocks were in the center of the screen, and in one case the large one prevented the small one from passing and the small one had to yield and make a detour to pass, while in another it happened the other way around.
Since children so young tend to pay more attention when situations surprise them, the psychologists decided to analyze their reaction by measuring the time they paid attention to the screen. And they observed that the children paid more attention when the large block gave way to the small one, the average was 20 seconds, compared to 12 seconds in the case in which the large block prevented the small one from passing. In other words, evenBabies understand that being big and muscular is very helpful during conflictand they are surprised when this is not the case.
“The studies we present are the first to show that young children can understand events where agents have conflicting goals and have ways of predicting which one will prevail,” explains Susan Carey, co-author and professor of psychology at Harvard.
