Twelve-Month-Old Infants' Sensitivity to Others' Emotions Following Positive and Negative Events

This study investigated infants' sensitivity to others' congruent and incongruent emotional reactions to positive and negative events. Thirty-six 12-month-old infants viewed three distinct interpersonal events (give a toy, break a toy, fight over a toy) followed by an emotional expression (happiness, sadness, anger) that was either congruent or incongruent with the preceding event outcome. The duration of infants' looking toward each emotional reaction was examined. Infants demonstrated sensitivity to incongruent emotional reactions for the give and fight events, representing the earliest evidence to date of emotional sensitivity to negative events.