Professor Renee Baillargeon of the University of Illinois spoke at the University last week about her research into morality in infants — work that challenges the model set forth in just about every introductory or child psychology class.
Starting off her presentation with a quote from famous cognitive psychologist Marilynn Brewer, Baillargeon spoke about her current research, which looks at whether and how infants and toddlers understand social interactions.
“Baillargeon is an extremely influential developmental psychologist, who studies infants in order to investigate questions related to the origins of knowledge,” said Assoc. Psychology Prof. Vikram Jaswal, who attended the presentation and also works with young children.
Baillargeon’s work exposed infants to scenes in which individuals interact with others from their “ingroup” versus with those from their “outgroup.” In some cases, people were shown to be part of the same ingroup via behaviors that showed that they knew and wanted to help each other. Outgroup members were those with whom an individual had no previous interaction. In other cases, members of the same ingroup looked alike, while outgroup members looked different, as in an experiment that used monkey puppets and giraffe puppets.
In the experiment in which humans interacted with each other, babies appeared to show more surprise when someone stole cookies from a person who had shared with them than from a person they’d never met or from a person who’d stolen cookies from them.
“By 15 months, babies understand that you should not bite the hand that fed you,” Baillargeon said.
In the puppet experiment, a monkey was given cookies that it could distribute to another monkey and a giraffe. When there were not enough cookies for everyone, the infants were just as surprised by the monkey sharing with giraffe and other monkeys as they were when the monkey gave both cookies to the giraffe.
When there were enough cookies, the infants only reacted with surprise to the monkey giving more cookies to the giraffe, showing equal looking times both when the monkey shared equally and when it kept the cookies for the monkeys.
The takeaway, Baillargeon explained, is that when resources are scarce, even young infants expect people to take care of their own, but that when there is enough to go around, fairness and favoritism are seen as equally acceptable.
“We think it is culture that will tell them which way to go,” Baillargeon said.
Baillargeon stressed that these findings didn’t prove that infants had anything against those who were different, only that they favored those with whom they strongly identified. The infants only expressed surprise at seeing someone helping an outsider if that outsider had acted against a member of the ingroup.
“We never see hatred for the outgroup, only preference for the ingroup,” Baillargeon said.
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