New research suggests that even 6-month-old babies can feel empathy for bullied victims. Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Hebrew University conducted two experiments to show the prevailing theory that babies can only feel empathy at the age of 1 was inaccurate. They showed 27 infants two videos, one of a square figure meeting a friendly circular figure and happily walking down a hill together, and then a video of the round figure hitting and bullying the square figure. The scientists then had the babies choose which figure they prefer, bringing them out to the babies on a tray. Over 80 percent of the babies picked the bullied square figure. When shown the figurines without having previously seen the videos, the babies displayed no particular preference for the square or round figures. The results were published in British Journal of Psychology.
