Less attention to emotional faces is associated with low empathy and prosociality in 12-to 20-month old infants.

ABSTRACT: The development of empathy and prosocial behavior begins in infancy and is likely supported by emotion processing skills. The current study explored whether early emerging deficits in emotion processing are associated with disruptions in the development of empathy and prosociality. We investigated this question in a large, diverse sample of 147, 11- to 20-month-old infants (42% female; 61% Black; 67% low socioeconomic status). Infants completed two observational tasks assessing prosocial helping and one task assessing empathy and prosocial comforting behavior. Infants also completed an eye-tracking task assessing engagement and disengagement with negative emotional faces. Infants who attended less to angry, sad, and fearful faces (i.e., by being slower to look at and/or quicker to look awa

SUBMITTER: Donohue MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10872599 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature