Investigating infant preference for prosocial others: Replication and extension using repeated measures

Recent research suggests that infants as young as 5 months old demonstrate an innate or unlearned ability to make judgments about others' prosocial and antisocial behavior. Data used to support this assertion suggest that, when given a single opportunity to choose a puppet after watching a puppet show, more infants (72-100% of infants) choose a helper puppet (the puppet that "helps" another puppet attain its goal) over a hinderer puppet (the puppet that "hinders" another puppet from attaining its goal). However, to date, no independent research teams have published a replication of these methods and results. The purpose of the current investigation was to replicate Hamlin and Wynn (2011) and extend their work by including within-subject repeated measures of choice. Twenty infants were shown a puppet show nearly identical to that used by Hamlin and Wynn (2011) and asked to make a choice between the two puppets afterwards (i.e., the helper or hinderer); infants were then asked to choose a puppet four more times, resulting in five choices per infant. Results of the current investigation failed to replicate those of Hamlin and Wynn (2011), as infants in the current investigation did not consistently choose the helper more often during subsequent choice trials. Implications and limitations of this study, as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Nighbor, Tyler D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Carolynn Kohn

• Social psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Experimental psychology
• Psychology
• Infants
• Innate morality
• Parsimony
• Replication
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Psychiatry and Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Identifier

9781321285086

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1293