Even two-year-olds can tell the difference between a leader and a bully

By Alex Fradera Every child is born into a world far more complex than the womb it departed. Physically it’s made up of objects, distances, heights, which we know new-born infants are already oriented to read and make sense of. But their new world is also a social one, chock-full of agents with needs and intentions, and past findings show that infants are surprisingly quick to recognise much of this too.  New research in PNAS adds to this literature, investigating the ability to make an important social distinction – between those who hold power due to respect and those who impose it through force – and finds that already by the time they are toddlers, infants can do this too. Past evidence showed that infants in the first year of life can view situations and recognise who is likely to hold power. They are more surprised (we know this because they pay attention for longer) when a smaller figure bosses a bigger one about, or a lone figure controls someone with companions, than when the opposite is true. Infants also seem to grasp that power lasts over time, looking longer when someone who used to be obeyed is suddenly defied. A research team led by Francesco Margoni of the University of Trento, wanted to see if this sensitivity to power extended to telling between its two major types –  legitimate power (e.g. when someone is chosen to be leader or has natural talents) and power based on bullying and inciting fear. We know that these types of power have different im...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Source Type: blogs