Toddlers can both sense adult anger and alter their behavior in response to it, new research reveals.
"Babies are like sponges," said study co-author Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, in Seattle. "They learn not only from their own direct social experiences but from watching the social interactions between two other people."
He said he was most surprised at how emotionally "sophisticated" the babies were at such a young age.
"This study shows that even 15-month-olds have their emotional antennae up and are scanning the social environment to understand and predict other people's emotional reactions," he said. "Young children have a kind of emotional radar that is quite striking."
Meltzoff's team conducted an experiment in which 150 toddlers, all aged 15 months, sat on their parents' laps and watched an experimenter show them how to use several toys that made different sounds.
[For more of this story, written by Tara Haelle, go to http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/child-development-news-124/toddlers-adjust-to-adult-anger-in-new-study-692916.html]
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