Learning Sympathy
A big part of being human is feeling sympathy, but just how early on in our lives we learn this is something that scientists would like to know.
From Self-Awareness To Other-Awareness
Behavioral scientists know that newborns respond to the emotional states of other people, by crying when other babies cry. However, babies can’t distinguish between themselves and others — shown by recognizing themselves in a mirror — until they’re eighteen to twenty months old. Toddlers also start to show concern for others around this time.
Kids also begin to do things like comfort other people at about this age. By the time they’re three, most children will try to protect a victim from a bully in a fight. But how do kids go from the infant stage, crying when others cry, to the protecting stage of later childhood?
Blue Ball Vs. Yellow Cube
To find out, researchers from Kyoto University, and Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan, designed a program to test for signs of sympathy in ten-month olds. In the video, a blue ball chases a yellow cube around the screen, repeatedly pushing and hitting it.
After the babies watched the video, they tended to reach out and try to touch the yellow cube victim, a sign of sympathy. When the bully became the victim, babies still reached out for the object that got hurt.
However, some researchers think that babies might just be attracted to an object that moves differently in videos such as these. So the matter of exactly when sympathy may develop is still up for debate.
同情心研究
人类的一大特点就是有同情心，可是科学们想知道的是同情心最早是什么时候进入我们的生活的。
从自我意识到他人意识
行为科学家确信新生儿会对他人的情绪状态进行回应，会因为其他宝宝大哭而大哭。然而，婴儿无法分辨自己和他人的区别——这是通过观察他们能否从镜子中分辨自己得出的结论——直到他们18到20个月大才行。这些刚开始走路的孩子在这一阶段也开始展现出对他人的关注。
同时，儿童大约在这一时间段开始做出类似安慰他人的举动。等到他们三岁的时候，大多数孩子会在打斗中尝试从欺负人者手中保护受害者。可是孩子是如何从别人哭自己也哭的小婴儿阶段转变到之后幼年期的保护阶段的呢？
蓝色球vs 黄色方块
为了找到原因，日本京都大学和丰乔技术科技大学的研究人员设计了一个计划来测试10个月大的婴儿的同情心迹象。在录像周，一个蓝色的球在屏幕中到处追逐一个黄色的方块，并不断推它，打它。
婴儿们看完录像后，他们往往会伸出手，试图触摸这个黄色的受害方块，这是有同情心的表现。当欺负人的物体变成受害者后，婴儿们仍会对被打的物体伸出手。
然而，部分研究人员认为婴儿可能只是被这类在录像中活动方式不同的物体所吸引了而已。因此同情心到底是什么时间产生的扔有待商榷。
