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July 16, 2025

Infants use helping to infer the existence and strength of caring relationships

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Authors

BPBill PepeBWBrandon Matthew WooATAshley J Thomas

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Overview

Four preregistered studies show infants expect helpers to assist specific targets, suggesting awareness of social motives.

Key Points

  • MAIN FINDING: Infants use helping behaviors to infer the existence of caring relationships towards specific targets.
  • KEY EVIDENCE: After observing helpers and hinderers, infants expected helpers to assist the same individual again in new contexts.
  • APPROACH: The research included four preregistered studies involving 14- and 15-month-old infants' responses to social interactions.
  • SIGNIFICANCE: This study advances understanding of how infants interpret social motives, laying groundwork for social relationship development.

Cite This Study

Pepe et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/689a02c9e6551bb0af8ccdc6https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7rbs2_v1
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Eleven-Month-Old Infants Preferentially Look at Helpers But Do Not Reliably Incorporate Inconsistency Into Their Evaluations2025
  2. 2Infants make moral character inferences in multi-agent social interactions2026 · 2 citations
  3. 3File Drawer Report: Infants’ Expectations for Mutual Affiliates2025
  4. 4Able and willing: Infants selectively seek help from competent and benevolent others.2024
  5. 5Developmental pathways of infant helping toward caregivers and unfamiliar adults: A longitudinal study2026