To Be Child-like
It’s heartening to read this bit of behavioral news. I read somewhere, some time ago that military training, essentially training to kill another person, runs counter to the natural disposition of human beings.
This study which shows infants show early signs of altruism:
As part of the study, Warneken developed scenarios in which an adult needed help. In one case, he dropped a clothespin on the floor while hanging up laundry.
In 84 per cent of cases, infants as young as 18 months, who were not familiar with Warneken, would help retrieve the peg.
During the test, he never asked for help. He also did not thank or reward the child, since the study was designed to show if the toddlers could show altruistic behaviour.
When he deliberately threw a peg on the ground, the infants didn’t help to retrieve it. That suggests the babies were able to infer when the peg was needed to complete the task of hanging up clothes.
I was wondering when exactly do we lose the concept of play in favor of competition. It turns out at some point, we also lose or at least suppress that sense of altruism as we grow older. Adds another dimension to that saying about growing being childlike doesn’t it?
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