German and British researchers have shown for the first time: Babies perceive what is right and what is wrong. Social norms are generally accepted rules, patterns and standards of behavior designed to ensure the regularity and stability of human interaction. It is believed that understanding of social norms comes to children only in the third year of life.

Because at this age, if babies feel that they are not being followed, they begin to impose these norms on other children. Some studies have also shown that the tendency to correct other children’s behavior begins to emerge as early as 18 months. But there is currently no evidence that children understand at an earlier age what the norm is.

At least this is what scientists from the universities of Regensburg (Germany) and Oxford (England) state in their studies published in the journal. Scientific Reports. Researchers have shown for the first time that children can understand social norms as early as 11 months.

To study infants’ reactions to violations, researchers created short animated vignettes in which two characters repeatedly performed an action (for example, hitting two balls together) and a third person did the same action after them. or did something else (for example, throw the same balls into the air). When this character wanted to join the first two, they either welcomed him or, on the contrary, reacted with disapproval and turned away.

The children participating in the study watched these videos and the scientists measured the size of the children’s pupils. So the researchers checked how surprised the babies were by what they saw. It turned out that the children were surprised when the reaction of the first two characters did not match the behavior of the third character: he did the same with them, but was still not accepted into their “friendship”.

“A very important feature of social norms is that we not only behave like others, as is observed in many animal species, but also evaluate others whether they comply with the rules established by the group. In principle, these rules can take on any behavior – what is important is that we belong to a particular group It is interesting that babies understand this kind of rules even before they can create and obey them themselves.

We discovered that this may be built into human nature, that it may be its basic mechanism, a social compass that allows babies to organize and navigate their social environment from an early age,” says Moritz Koster, one of the study’s authors from the University of Regensburg.