Infants' attention to fearful faces may predict their altruism later in life, suggests this study by a team at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, presented in the journal PLoS Biology.
Altruistic behavior, such as helping someone in need, is considered an essential feature of cooperation in our human societies. However, our propensity to commit altruistic acts varies considerably, ranging from the “kidney donor” to the… antisocial subject. Previous studies have suggested that greater sensitivity to fearful faces is linked to higher levels of prosocial behavior. This trait can already be seen in preschoolers, the study suggests: By examining toddlers' reactivity to fearful faces, the team identifies unique ground to shed light on behavioral precursors. altruistic.
Paying special attention to fearful faces: Lead author Dr. Grossmann and colleagues tracked the eye movements of 7-month-old grandchildren to gauge their responses to the expression of fear in others. Their analysis reveals that toddler altruistic behavior is well predicted by infants' attention to fearful faces, but by contrast, not to happy or angry faces. The researchers show that cerebral responses in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, measured by spectroscopy, predict babies' attentional "biases" or even their future altruistic behavior.
From early development, variability in altruistic behavior is linked to the ability to recognize others in distress and to the brain processes involved in controlling attention.
