Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY
Volume 39, Issue 4, Pages 265-285Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/dev.1005
Keywords
infant crying; distress vocalizations; attachment; maternal response; emotional development
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The proximate causes, survival value, ontogeny, and evolutionary history of human infant crying are examined. Experiments and field observations involving infant distress vocalizations and begging calls in avian, mammalian, and nonhuman primate species are considered, as are ethnographic records of infant care and responses to crying in nonindustrialized societies. It is argued that human infant crying evolved as a primarily acoustic, graded signal, that it is a fairly reliable, if imperfect, indicator of need for parental care and that its primary function is to promote parental caregiving. Selection pressures that may have shaped the evolution of crying and its potential for corruption through dishonesty also are discussed. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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