Further evidence for infants' preference for prosocial over antisocial behaviors

Céline Scola (1) , Claire Holvoet (1) , Thomas Arciszewski (1) , Delphine Picard (1)

1 PsyCLÉ - Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion

This study extends the findings that young infants prefer prosocial to antisocial others (Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2007; Hamlin & Wynn, 2011) to older infants (12-to-24 months, and 24-to-36 months) with a novel display. We presented infants with short cartoons in which a character (the « Protoganist ») engaged in a ball play with two others, one acting prosocially (the « Giver »), and the other antisocially (the « Keeper »). Afterwards, infants were presented with the Giver and the Keeper characters and encouraged to reach for the one of their choice. We found that infants exhibited robust choice for the Giver. In addition, infants' preference for the Giver persisted despite changes in facial features (dark skin, scrambled face). These findings provide further evidence for infant's preference for prosociality.

Mots clés: prosocial; moral; preference; Infancy; social cognition

Domaines: Psychologie; Neurosciences; Psychologie

Céline Scola, Claire Holvoet, Thomas Arciszewski, Delphine Picard. Further evidence for infants' preference for prosocial over antisocial behaviors. Infancy, 2015. ⟨hal-01793532⟩