Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias.
Adults tend to attribute agency and intention to the causes of negative outcomes, even if those causes are obviously mechanical. Is this over-attribution of negative agency the result of years of practice with attributing agency to actual conspecifics, or is it a foundational aspect of our agency-de...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
|
| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24801144/pdf/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1819100714077519872 |
|---|---|
| author | J Kiley Hamlin Andrew S Baron |
| author_facet | J Kiley Hamlin Andrew S Baron |
| author_sort | J Kiley Hamlin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Adults tend to attribute agency and intention to the causes of negative outcomes, even if those causes are obviously mechanical. Is this over-attribution of negative agency the result of years of practice with attributing agency to actual conspecifics, or is it a foundational aspect of our agency-detection system, present in the first year of life? Here we present two experiments with 6-month-old infants, in which they attribute agency to a mechanical claw that causes a bad outcome, but not to a claw that causes a good outcome. Control experiments suggest that the attribution stems directly from the negativity of the outcome, rather than from physical cues present in the stimuli. Together, these results provide evidence for striking developmental continuity in the attribution of agency to the causes of negative outcomes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T01:07:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-04d49e2a71be4616acd428b899c23b10 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T01:07:09Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-04d49e2a71be4616acd428b899c23b102022-12-21T18:44:03ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0195e9611210.1371/journal.pone.0096112Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias.J Kiley HamlinAndrew S BaronAdults tend to attribute agency and intention to the causes of negative outcomes, even if those causes are obviously mechanical. Is this over-attribution of negative agency the result of years of practice with attributing agency to actual conspecifics, or is it a foundational aspect of our agency-detection system, present in the first year of life? Here we present two experiments with 6-month-old infants, in which they attribute agency to a mechanical claw that causes a bad outcome, but not to a claw that causes a good outcome. Control experiments suggest that the attribution stems directly from the negativity of the outcome, rather than from physical cues present in the stimuli. Together, these results provide evidence for striking developmental continuity in the attribution of agency to the causes of negative outcomes.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24801144/pdf/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | J Kiley Hamlin Andrew S Baron Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. PLoS ONE |
| title | Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. |
| title_full | Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. |
| title_fullStr | Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. |
| title_short | Agency attribution in infancy: evidence for a negativity bias. |
| title_sort | agency attribution in infancy evidence for a negativity bias |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24801144/pdf/?tool=EBI |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jkileyhamlin agencyattributionininfancyevidenceforanegativitybias AT andrewsbaron agencyattributionininfancyevidenceforanegativitybias |