Big thinkers

Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 14:20 in Psychology & Sociology

Psychologists at Harvard University have found that infants younger than a year old understand social dominance and use relative size to predict who will prevail when two individuals’ goals conflict. The finding is presented this week in the journal Science. Lead author Lotte Thomsen says the work suggests that we may be born with — or develop at a very early age — some understanding of social dominance and how it relates to relative size, a correlation ubiquitous across human cultures and the animal kingdom. This potentially innate knowledge may help infants face the formidable challenge of learning the structure of their social environment, specifying ways of recognizing who is socially dominant in their particular culture. “Traditional kings and chieftains sit on large, elevated thrones and wear elaborate crowns or robes that make them look bigger than they really are, and subordinates often bow or kneel to show respect to superior humans...

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