At what age do you learn to understand the social relationships of others? If we adults see two people drinking from the same glass, for example, we imagine that they know each other or have a certain type of relationship. But the children? According to a study published in Evolution and Human Behaviorinfants as young as 4 or 6 months of age are already able to understand how intimate a relationship between two people is based on the exchange of saliva, for example by observing the sharing of food and cutlery. “Children are born into a very social world, in which it is important to collaborate with others: this is why they need to understand social bonds,” explains Brandon Woo, coordinator of the study.
Previous studies conducted by the team had found that children of around eight months are already able to understand whether there is a close bond between two people exchanging saliva, and they expect one of the two to help the other in case of difficulty (for example if he sees him crying). At four to six months of age, however, babies generally don’t look at faces much and don’t yet share food with other babies.
With and without saliva
To understand whether even such young children are able to recognize the bonds between people, the researchers conducted two different experiments: in the first, an adult placed a slice of orange on his tongue, and then put it in the mouth of a puppet (interaction with saliva); as a “control” action, another person passed a ball to the puppet (interaction without saliva); at the end of the interactions, the puppet appeared to be suffering. In the second experiment, an adult placed a finger in his own mouth, then in the puppet’s mouth, and again in his own; another (control) puppet touched his forehead; at the end of these interactions, the adult cried and appeared to be suffering.
In both experiments, when the puppet or the human appeared to be suffering, the child looked longer at the partner with whom he had exchanged saliva, as if to say “react, do something to console him or make him feel better!”.
Clean slate?
According to Woo, 4-6 month old babies seem to have an “abstract” knowledge of relationships: they have not simply memorized a scene seen every day, but understand that an action (the exchange of saliva) only occurs when two people have a certain type of relationship.
In this sense, the results add a further nuance to the idea of the “blank slate” newborn, to be formed from scratch: with minimal experience, at just a few months of life, children already know how social bonds work.
