Systematic evidence of fake crying by a baby

Image: Tucia / FlickrCrying is an important survival behaviour for babies - the world is informed that they are in distress and need prompt attention. Many parents also describe what looks like fake crying by their infants. It seems as though the child is pretending to be in distress merely as a way to get attention. Some people doubt that babies can really be capable of such deception, but now Hiroko Nakayama in Japan has published the results from six months' intensive study of crying by two babies, and she reports persuasive evidence of fake crying by one of them.Nakayama filmed the babies in their homes for sixty minutes twice a month, for six months. The videos were then carefully coded by two researchers in five-second segments. Sixty-eight episodes of crying were documented for Baby R, aged 7 months at the study start; and 34 episodes for Baby M, aged 9 months at the study start.The analysis focused on the presence of positive and negative affect (emotion) in the minutes and seconds prior to and after episodes of crying. All of Baby M's crying episodes were preceded by clear evidence of distress and negative affect, as betrayed by grimaces, vocalisations and downturned lips.Just over 98 per cent of Baby R's crying episodes were also preceded by negative affect, but there was a single instance at 11 months where her crying immediately followed positive emotion (indicated by smiling or laughing), and then positive emotion abruptly followed the bout of cryi...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs