Connecting the Dots on the Origins of Social Knowledge

Abstract

Understanding what infants know about social life is a growing enterprise. Indeed, one of the most exciting developments within psychological science over the past decade is the view that infants may come equipped with knowledge about “good” and “bad” and about “us” and “them.” At the heart of this view is a seminal set of studies indicating that infants prefer helpers to hinderers and similar to dissimilar others. What a growing number of researchers now believe is that these preferences may be based on innate (i.e., unlearned) social knowledge. In this article, I consider how decades of research in developmental psychology can lead to a different way to make sense of this popular body of work. As I make connections between old observations and new theorizing—and between classic findings and contemporary research—I consider how the same preferences that are thought to emanate from innate social knowledge may instead reflect social knowledge that infants can rapidly build as they pursue relationships with their caregivers. I offer this perspective with hopes that it will inspire future work that supports or questions the ideas sketched out here and, by doing so, will broaden an understanding of the origins of social knowledge.

Adopted Utility Calculus: Origins of a Concept of Social Affiliation

“…Finally, individual and cultural differences in experience are likely to affect the development of this concept and the intuitive theories in which it is embedded (Amir & McAuliffe, 2020; Nielsen et al, 2017; Shutts & Kalish, 2021; Tasimi, 2020). Learning may affect perceptions of the likelihood of egalitarian motives versus parochial motives and of the stability of affiliation over time (de Guzman et al, 2008; Weinfield et al, 1999).…”

A Dollar Is a Dollar Is a Dollar, or Is It? Insights From Children's Reasoning About “Dirty Money”

“…Another reason to suspect that children may imbue money with moral history comes from a consistent finding in contemporary developmental psychology: Children-even infants-wish to avoid individuals who engage in negative actions (e.g., Buon et al, 2014;Hamlin & Wynn, 2011;Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2010;Kenward & Dahl, 2011;Scola, Holvoet, Arciszewski, & Picard, 2015;Tasimi, 2020;Vaish, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2010). What is more, this aversion toward wrongdoers appears to be powerful enough to reduce children's material interests (Tasimi, Johnson, & Wynn, 2017;Tasimi & Wynn, 2016).…”

Social biases in word embeddings and their relation to human cognition

“…Infants come into the world ready to learn about their social environment, and they do so quickly (Tasimi, 2020). By the time they reach school, children show evidence of holding common gender and racial stereotypes.…”