Babies can be mean-spirited: psychological study

The Slideshow ^ | 3/13/13 | Mike Krumboltz

[EBH]

Is your baby secretly plotting against you? Maybe. A study from the University of British Columbia's Centre for Infant Cognition found that babies have a bit of a mean streak when it comes to people they perceive as different.

In an experiment, babies were given a choice of snacks, either graham crackers or green beans (apparently some babies chose green beans--go figure). Researchers found that when babies study their surroundings, they show a lot of interest in people with different tastes and preferences.

The researchers conducted a puppet show for the subjects, ages 9 and 14 months. Puppet 1 "ate" the same snack that the baby chose, while Puppet 2 chose the other snack. Puppet 1 acted either friendly, indifferent, or aggressively toward Puppet 2.

Here's where it gets interesting. Researchers found that when given a choice of which puppet to play with afterward, "almost all the infants at both ages preferred the character who harmed the dissimilar puppet over the character who helped him," according to a press

[EBH]

First study that shows we are hard-wired for biases...

[bigheadfred]

ANYONE who was ever a kid KNOWS THIS.

[ReformationFan]

What a shock, libs. We call it original sin.

[bigheadfred]

and it is ok to proudly show that “PG” your dad tattooed on your a$$

[svcw]

Ok, who will be the first to post a picture of Stewie?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Babies can be mean-spirited?? Of course. The White house showed us that.

[Revolting cat!]

[Revolting cat!]

[uptowngirl]

You beat me to it. I was going to say that we call that sin nature.

[cripplecreek]

I say babies are just all about themselves. Nothing more, nothing less, values come with age and teaching.

[Wanderer99]

Babies cannot be “mean spirited”. They are simply selfish/self-centered.

That’s not exactly a shock. They lack the cognitive development and training for super-ego behavior.

[cripplecreek]

Stewie beats brian badly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKAut3sVrw

[Revolting cat!]

And then they grow up mean women!

[Daffynition]

Then are the exceptions:

This is Tereska, a child in a residence for disturbed children, grew up in a concentration camp. She drew a picture of "home"

[yarddog]

My oldest Sister is very bossy. She has always been that way.

I recently saw a picture of her with Mother and Daddy. This would have been around 1937 when she was around one and a half. They are sitting on a picnic blanket and she is on Daddy’s knee.

Sure enough, she had that bossy look even back then. I think part of it was that she was the oldest but that was before she had any siblings. It was just her nature.

[Slings and Arrows]

It's true! Here's the proof!

[Daffynition]

Making up for *both* of our disturbing images.

[JoeProBono]

[CrazyIvan]

Thank God I don’t have nightmares. That would prompt one.

[Slings and Arrows]

You know her?