Baby Knows When You’re a Hothead

The next time you begin to lose your temper or argue with someone in front of your baby — check yourself. New research shows that babies make quick judgments about people’s emotional character, and tend to think that someone who has been angry will become angry again.

In other words, Baby knows you’re a hothead — and that is never good for Baby.

“Our studies show that babies are very tuned in to other people’s anger,” Betty Repacholi told Science Daily. She is a scientist at the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS) and lead author of the new research published in Developmental Psychology. “For parents, it’s important to be mindful of how powerful that emotion is for babies.”

[lz_bulleted_list title=”Studies Show that Babies:” source=”http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/03/21/better-safe-than-sorry-babies-make-quick-judgments-about-adults-anger/“]Make quick judgments about people’s emotional qualities.|Can have negative emotions dominate their perceptions of a person.|Tend to assume a person with a history of anger will be angry again. [/lz_bulleted_list]

Parents need to exercise self-control when around their little ones. Just because they can’t speak or completely understand a confrontational situation doesn’t mean babies aren’t soaking in anger — and even using adaptive measures to stay off the volatile person’s grid.

“Babies are ‘emotion detectives,’” Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of I-LABS, told Science Daily. “They watch and listen to our emotions, remember how we act in the past, and use this to predict how we will act in the future. How long these first impressions last is an important question.”

Babies will do whatever they can to avoid being the target of anger.

The new diaper-set data comes from two studies by I-LABS. In the first, scientists wanted to see how exposing babies to an unfamiliar adult’s anger toward another adult would affect babies’ behavior in a subsequent situation.

Two hundred and seventy 15-month-old babies, both boys and girls, were divided into two groups. In one group the babies sat on their parents’ laps across from an “experimenter,” who showed the baby how to play with different toys. Another person, the “emoter,” was present, too, and reacted in either a neutral way or a negative way to the toy, using a stern voice.

Then the baby had a chance to play with the same toy.

The results were impressive — babies who witnessed the angry outburst were less likely to play with the toy that caused the outburst than babies in the control group, who saw a neutral reaction from the emoter.

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FC4qRD1vn8&feature=youtu.be”]

In a second study, babies who had previously seen the emoter become angry readily relinquished even very desirable toys. Sixty-nine percent of babies in the “anger” group gave up their toys compared to 46 percent in a control group not exposed to anger.

“Our research shows that babies will do whatever they can to avoid being the target of anger,” said Repacholi. “At this young age, they have already worked out a way to stay safe. It’s a smart, adaptive response.”

This is sobering research that reminds parents self-control and a purposefully calm environment are critical for a baby’s sense of safety and well-being.