Richard Cocks over at the Orthospehere summarises some recent research from the Infant Cognition Center at Yale, run by Dr. Karen Wynn and her husband Paul Bloom. Five month olds somehow prefer the little yellow-colored shape that tries to help another (red) shape over the antagonistic, actively interfering blue shape. Yay! Even babies prefer cooperation! However, they also prefer shapes or puppets that make similar cereal choices to their own, and want the puppets making other choices to be punished. This seems more likely to lead to adult conflicts in ways that we recognise all too well.
A fun read.
People expect others to mirror their own selfishness, generosity
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