Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping!
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Posted on 03/03/2006 11:16:47 AM PST by mlc9852
WASHINGTON - Oops, the scientist dropped his clothespin. Not to worry — a wobbly toddler raced to help, eagerly handing it back. The simple experiment shows the capacity for altruism emerges as early as 18 months of age.
Toddlers' endearing desire to help out actually signals fairly sophisticated brain development, and is a trait of interest to anthropologists trying to tease out the evolutionary roots of altruism and cooperation.
Psychology researcher Felix Warneken performed a series of ordinary tasks in front of toddlers, such as hanging towels with clothespins or stacking books. Sometimes he "struggled" with the tasks; sometimes he deliberately messed up.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
AWWWW! Who runs the cute & sweet babies ping list, surely there is one?
Yeah, but let them try the experiment with teenagers!
I would love to hear how Peter, the kook, Singer spins this.
If my babies hadn't demonstrated a willingness to help me early on in their lives, I would have left them for the wolves.
Silly scientists.
Ayn Rand would have told them to pick up the clothespin themselves then analyzed the psycho epistimology of scientists who seek altruism in babies.
i can see this. my 2y/o daughter is very helpful. we just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my older daughter is always wanting to help. she gets diapers and wipes, helps feed her, picks out clothes for her to wear, and always tries to soothe her when she's crying- by singing to her! she just learned her first song (you are my sunshine) and sings it to the baby when she's crying.
This reminds me of the "Family Ties" episode in which Alex (Michael J. Fox) discovers that his little brother (Brian Bonsall) is attending a touchy-feely liberal nursery school. The children are wearing signs proclaiming things like "I know how to share" and "I know how to say thank you". So Alex brings his brother back to school the next day wearing a sign that says, "I know what's mine". And he asks him, "What do we think about sharing?" and the kid blows a razberry.
FYI Ping.
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...
This assumes the child has actual interaction with a parent that cares and is not shuttled off securely in a crib behind a wall, out of site and out of mind, or warehoused in a daycare where dozens of untended children scream for hours, then all the diapers are changed 10 minutes before the parents arrive.
Pay close attention because the day might come where the two-year-old ties a rope to the baby's hand because it's time to go outside for a walk :)
Cute li'l thread.
Merely an "early" documented instance of "I will work for food."
Thanks for the ping!
Pinging BG , I bet she has a ping list of sorts!!
No prayer requests this time....I'm just pinging you to a really cute, neat post about our favorite topic...
BABIES!
Thank you Ernest!!!
My preschooler is helpful when he wants to be. If I ask him to do something, he usually tells me he's too tired.
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