VANCOUVER, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Infants as young as nine months
embrace those who pick on individuals who are different from them,
suggesting that infant might have some early understanding of
social alliances, according to a study published earlier this
month.

"Our research shows that by nine months, babies are busy
assessing their surroundings, trying to determine who is friend or
foe," said Prof. Kiley Hamlin of University of British Columbia's
Department of Psychology, lead author of the study.

"One important way they make these distinctions, our study
finds, is based on perceived differences and similarities."

In the study, researchers had babies aged 9-14 months choose
which food they preferred: graham crackers or green beans. The
infants then watched a puppet show in which one puppet demonstrated
the same food preference as the infant, while another exhibited the
opposite preference.

After seeing other puppets harmed, helped or acted neutrally
toward the puppets with different or similar food preferences,
infants demonstrated a strong preference for the puppets who harmed
the "dissimilar" puppet and helped the "similar" one.

"These findings suggest that babies either feel something like
schaudenfreude -- pleasure when an individual they dislike or
consider threatening experiences harm," said Hamlin. "Or babies
have some early understanding of social alliances, recognizing that
the 'enemy of their enemy' is their friend."

Hamlin describes the behavior as an early form of the powerful,
persistent social biases that exist in most adults, who favor
individuals who share their origins, languages, appearances, over
people with whom they have fewer things in common. Enditem