Baby Friends & Feelings

10- to 11-month-old babies.

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

This study asks if babies expect characters who are empathetic to each other to be friends or rivals. Your baby will watch as one of the characters responds positively to one character's success, but sadly to another character. Then your baby will see the characters interact positively with each other. We will use gaze tracking to ask: Do babies expect someone who empathizes to also be friends with the individual they empathized with?

Research shows babies expect friends, but not rivals, to be happy for each other when one succeeds. We don't know whether babies expect the reverse: whether empathy (or being happy for someone's success) signals friendship, while counter-empathy (or being sad for someone's success) signals rivalry. In this study, we ask just that: do babies use empathy as a cue for a positive social relationship? This study will help us better understand how babies reason about friendship, empathy, and their relationship to each other.

15 minutes

Participants will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card. The gift card will be sent within 24 hours after the session. Only one gift card per participant and the participant must be in the age range for the study to receive the gift card.