They may be young, but they’re not stupid

WASHINGTON - Even babies can tell who’s a pint-sized jerk ... and who they’d rather play with.

A recent Yale study found babies as young as 6 to 10 months old showed crucial social judging skills before they could talk.

Researchers at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center had their test infants watch a googly eyed wooden toy trying to climb roller-coaster hills. Then another googly eyed toy would come by and either help the first one over the mountain or push it backward. The babies then were presented with the toys to see which they would play with.

Nearly every baby picked the helpful toy over the bad one.

The babies also chose neutral toys - ones that didn’t help or hinder - over the naughty ones. And the babies chose the helping toys over the neutral ones.

“It’s incredibly impressive that babies can do this,” said study lead author Kiley Hamlin, a Yale psychology researcher. “We know that they’re very, very social beings from very, very early on.”

A study last year out of Germany showed that babies as young as 18 months old overwhelmingly helped out when they could, such as by picking up toys that researchers dropped.


because really, who wants to be friends with the fat kid?[or the bully]