Babies can tell who's closely related from whether they share saliva

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Infants and toddlers seem to expect people who exchange saliva, for example by taking bites of the same food, to be close enough to comfort each other if one gets upset

Babies and toddlers can identify people who are intimately related based on whether they exchange saliva, which may help them to understand the social world around them.

The experiment was repeated with 118 US toddlers aged 14.5 to 19 months from diverse racial, economic and geographical backgrounds and produced the same results. It is important for young children to know who they have thick relationships with because they are dependent on others for survival and must figure out who is most likely to respond to their needs and distress, says Thomas.

Being able to perceive the level of closeness between unfamiliar individuals is also useful because it allows children to “make sense of the complex social structures around them”, writesMother’s attention may shape baby’s hormone system and temperament

 

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