Infants have been showing signs of empathy for six months, according to Israeli researchers. Scientists at Ben Gurion University (BGU) and Hebrew University Jerusalem (HUJI) have been examining the empathy of six-month-old children to understand which situations they declare and which do not.
The researchers first showed infants two videos in which a square figure walks up a mountain and meets a round figure halfway. In one video, the latter character was friendly and kind, the two figures returning to the foot of the mountain together. In the second video, however, the round figure acted as an abuser, striking the square figure, who cried, crouching.
After that, the children could choose from two square figures of different colors. More than 80 percent of the little ones chose the one that was sad.
They were then shown a video again with the same characters, but this time the babies could no longer see what the characters' emotions were. In this case, the children showed no greater affection or empathy for either of the figures.
According to experts, the results mean that, in the first year of their lives, children are already sensitive to the negative feelings of others and are able to judge the context in which these feelings occur.
(Source: marmalade.co.uk; hirado.com | Image: pixabay.com)