Oct. 7, 2011
Babies show sense of fairness, altruism as early as 15 months
By Molly McElroy
News & Information
A new study presents the first evidence that a basic sense of fairness and altruism appears in infancy. Babies as young as 15 months perceived the difference between equal and unequal distribution of food, and their awareness of equal rations was linked to their willingness to share a toy.
?Our findings show that these norms of fairness and altruism are more rapidly acquired than we thought,? said
Jessica Sommerville, a UW associate professor of psychology who led the study.
?These results also show a connection between fairness and altruism in infants, such that babies who were more sensitive to the unfair distribution of food were also more likely to share their preferred toy,? she said.
The study has implications for nurturing human egalitarianism and cooperation. The journal
PLoS ONE published the findings online Oct. 7, 2011. Co-author is
Marco Schmidt, a doctoral student at the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.....
