Learning Sympathy
A big part of being human is feeling sympathy, but just how early on in our lives we learn this is something that scientists would like to know.
From Self-Awareness To Other-Awareness
Behavioral scientists know that newborns respond to the emotional states of other people, by crying when other babies cry. However, babies can’t distinguish between themselves and others — shown by recognizing themselves in a mirror — until they’re eighteen to twenty months old. Toddlers also start to show concern for others around this time.
Kids also begin to do things like comfort other people at about this age. By the time they’re three, most children will try to protect a victim from a bully in a fight. But how do kids go from the infant stage, crying when others cry, to the protecting stage of later childhood?
Blue Ball Vs. Yellow Cube
To find out, researchers from Kyoto University, and Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan, designed a program to test for signs of sympathy in ten-month olds. In the video, a blue ball chases a yellow cube around the screen, repeatedly pushing and hitting it.
After the babies watched the video, they tended to reach out and try to touch the yellow cube victim, a sign of sympathy. When the bully became the victim, babies still reached out for the object that got hurt.
However, some researchers think that babies might just be attracted to an object that moves differently in videos such as these. So the matter of exactly when sympathy may develop is still up for debate.
同情心研究
人類的一大特點就是有同情心，可是科學(xué)們想知道的是同情心最早是什么時候進入我們的生活的。
從自我意識到他人意識
行為科學(xué)家確信新生兒會對他人的情緒狀態(tài)進行回應(yīng)，會因為其他寶寶大哭而大哭。然而，嬰兒無法分辨自己和他人的區(qū)別——這是通過觀察他們能否從鏡子中分辨自己得出的結(jié)論——直到他們18到20個月大才行。這些剛開始走路的孩子在這一階段也開始展現(xiàn)出對他人的關(guān)注。
同時，兒童大約在這一時間段開始做出類似安慰他人的舉動。等到他們?nèi)龤q的時候，大多數(shù)孩子會在打斗中嘗試從欺負人者手中保護受害者�？墒呛⒆邮侨绾螐膭e人哭自己也哭的小嬰兒階段轉(zhuǎn)變到之后幼年期的保護階段的呢？
藍色球vs 黃色方塊
為了找到原因，日本京都大學(xué)和豐喬技術(shù)科技大學(xué)的研究人員設(shè)計了一個計劃來測試10個月大的嬰兒的同情心跡象。在錄像周，一個藍色的球在屏幕中到處追逐一個黃色的方塊，并不斷推它，打它。
嬰兒們看完錄像后，他們往往會伸出手，試圖觸摸這個黃色的受害方塊，這是有同情心的表現(xiàn)。當(dāng)欺負人的物體變成受害者后，嬰兒們?nèi)詴䦟Ρ淮虻奈矬w伸出手。
然而，部分研究人員認(rèn)為嬰兒可能只是被這類在錄像中活動方式不同的物體所吸引了而已。因此同情心到底是什么時間產(chǎn)生的扔有待商榷。
