Revisiting the Prosocial Consequences of Interpersonal Synchrony: A Study in 14- to 16-month-old Infants

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Humans start to show prosocial behaviors around the first year after birth. For example, 14-month-old infants provide help to someone by handing over an object which is out-of-reach for that person (Warneken & Tomasello, 2007). Also, infants at 14 months show helping behavior towards others who shared a passive experience of moving in synchrony more than those who did not (Cirelli et al., 2014). Prosocial behaviors may emerge based on the development of some social cognitive abilities. However, it is still unknown what kinds of cognitive factors would relate to human prosocial behaviors in the early stages of life. In the current study, we examined whether and to what extent interpersonal synchrony has an effect on the prosocial behaviors in infants. We hypothesized that spontaneous helping behaviors would relate to the process of the self-other representation in development. If interpersonal synchrony blurs the self-other boundaries in infants as it does in adults (Paladino et al., 2010), we expect a higher frequency of helping behavior in infants who experience being in synchrony with others compared to those who do not. Seventeen infants participated in this study (6 girls; mean age = 15 month 5 days; SD = 25.5 days; data collection currently ongoing). The experiment consisted of three phases: the helping task phase (baseline), interpersonal movement phase, and helping task phase (test). Each helping task phase consisted of two sets of three trials. In each trial, Experimenter 1 (E1) accidentally dropped the object in front of the infant and acted for 30 sec as follows: For the first 10 sec, E1 stared at the object with a mildly concerned facial expression and produced a vocalization. For the next 10 sec, she reached for the object. In the following 5 sec, E1 alternated her gaze between the object and infant, and for the final 5 sec, she vocalized about the object (ex. “My stick!”). After the baseline helping tasks, infants joined the interpersonal movement phase. They were divided into either the interpersonal synchrony or asynchrony condition. The infants were held by Experimenter 2, facing E1, and were bounced every 600 ms for 140 sec, regardless of the condition. On the other hand, E1 bounced every 600 ms in the synchrony condition and every 429 ms in the asynchrony condition. After the interpersonal movement phase, the infants rejoined the helping task phase (test). We coded the infants’ behavior during the two helping tasks phases from 0 to 6 points, and calculated the difference between the baseline and the test phase for each infant. Preliminary results showed that helping behavior increased after an infant participated in the synchrony condition, whereas it decreased in the asynchrony condition, especially in the first 3 trials after the interpersonal movement phase. This suggests that both interpersonal synchrony and asynchrony have an effect on prosocial behavior, but that the effect lasts only briefly in the 14- to 16-month-old infants. Further data collection and data analysis will be completed by the end of December, 2020.

Authors

• Kaho Todoriki, Kyoto University
  Presenting Author

• Lira Yu, Kyoto University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Masako Myowa, Kyoto University
  Non-Presenting Author