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Toddlers Engage in 'Emotional Eavesdropping' to Guide their Behavior |
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University of Washington researchers have found that 18-month-old toddlers engage in what they call "emotional eavesdropping" by listening and watching emotional reactions directed by one adult to another and then using this emotional information to shape their own behavior. Writing in the March-April issue of the journal Child Development, which is being published today, Betty Repacholi and Andrew Meltzoff of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences say the research indicates infants understand other people's emotional states at a very young age. "This may be a precursor to 'reading' other people's minds by understanding their emotional and psychological states," said Repacholi, an assistant professor of psychology. The youngsters watched an adult manipulate a toy in both experiments. Then they watched while a second adult expressed anger or a neutral reaction in response to the first adult playing with a toy. The infants then were allowed to play with the toy and imitate the first adult's actions. In the second experiment, the second adult either turned her back on the child or silently looked toward the child with a neutral expression. When the second adult reacted neutrally or expressed anger and then either left the room or turned her back the youngsters grabbed the toy within one second. "Parents usually socialize boys and girls differently and girls are usually more compliant. The experiments are the first demonstration that infants can modify their own behavior in response to an emotional communication that does not involve them.
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