In my last blog, we talked about how researchers were able to detect jealousy. While it seems like that would be common sense to anyone who has more than one young child, it is now a “proven” scientific fact. They have determined with research that babies as young as 4 months are capable of feeling jealousy.
What is more important than the fact that someone spent likely millions of dollars to determine that babies can get jealous, is that doctors are starting to ditch the notion that babies are simply beings that just mimic those around them. That messy, diaper full of drooling cuteness is much more complicated and mentally intricate than we first thought.
Some of their research my surprise you.
Empathy
One of the first emotions that newborn babies display, according to this study is empathy. Concern for their fellow human seems to be hard wired.
Anyone with any baby experience knows well that if you have two babies and one starts crying. . .so does the other one. I never would’ve suggested this was empathy. I also would not have suggested that the 2nd baby is simply bothered by the noise. I always thought it was an innate sense that something was wrong.
However, researchers chose to set out and prove it could be empathy. How, you’re asking? They took hundreds of infants and had them watch videos of other babies crying. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for junior to start in too. However, when the same babies were shown videos of themselves crying, they could hardly give two hoots.
I still can’t say that I would’ve labeled that as empathy but I do think it’s interesting all the same. Furthermore, apparently babies get less empathetic the older they get. By 6 months, babies barely grimace at someone else’s discomfort. By about 14 months, babies will attempt to comfort a crying playmate.
So what do you think? Do you think that babies are blank slates or are these emotions as labeled, really part of the human psyche?
Check back soon for more insight on reading you baby’s mind!
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