Preverbal infants affirm third-party interventions that protect victims from aggressors

Yasuhiro Kanakogi (), Yasuyuki Inoue, Goh Matsuda, David Butler, Kazuo Hiraki and Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi
Additional contact information
Yasuhiro Kanakogi: Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University
Yasuyuki Inoue: Institute of Gerontology, The University of Tokyo
Goh Matsuda: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
David Butler: Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University
Kazuo Hiraki: The University of Tokyo
Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi: Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2017, vol. 1, issue 2, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Protective interventions by a third party on the behalf of others are generally admired, and as such are associated with our notions of morality, justice and heroism1–4. Indeed, stories involving such third-party interventions have pervaded popular culture throughout recorded human history, in myths, books and movies. The current developmental picture is that we begin to engage in this type of intervention by preschool age. For instance, 3-year-old children intervene in harmful interactions to protect victims from bullies5, and furthermore, not only punish wrongdoers but also give priority to helping the victim6. It remains unknown, however, when we begin to affirm such interventions performed by others. Here we reveal these developmental origins in 6- and 10-month old infants (N = 132). After watching aggressive interactions involving a third-party agent who either interfered or did not, 6-month-old infants preferred the former. Subsequent experiments confirmed the psychological processes underlying such choices: 6-month-olds regarded the interfering agent to be protecting the victim from the aggressor, but only older infants affirmed such an intervention after considering the intentions of the interfering agent. These findings shed light upon the developmental trajectory of perceiving, understanding and performing protective third-party interventions, suggesting that our admiration for and emphasis upon such acts — so prevalent in thousands of stories across human cultures — is rooted within the preverbal infant’s mind.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-016-0037 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nathum:v:1:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1038_s41562-016-0037

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-016-0037

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

More articles in Nature Human Behaviour from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().