Psychology Commons^™

Stability Of Infants’ Preference For Prosocial Others: Implications For Research Based On Single-Choice Paradigms, Tyler Nighbor, Carolynn S. Kohn, Matthew P. Normand, Henry Schlinger

Matthew Normand

Some research suggests infants display a tendency to judge others’ prosocial behavior, and in particular, that infants show a strong preference for prosocial others. For example, data from one frequently cited and well-publicized study showed that, after watching a puppet show with three puppets, 74% of infants chose the puppet that “helped” rather than the puppet that “hindered” a third puppet from attaining its goal. The purpose of the current investigation was to replicate these methods and extend them by including a within-subject measure of infant puppet choice across repeated trials to assess the stability of infants’ choice. In the …