Bilingual Infants are More Sensitive to Morally Relevant Social Behavior than Monolingual Infants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Forming social evaluations of others is a core component of social cognition. In this study, the relationship between bilingual experience and social evaluations was investigated in 8-month-old infants. We compared monolingual and bilingual infants’ responses to third-party interactions where characters performed prosocial and antisocial actions toward a neutral actor. The same prosocial and antisocial characters were then rewarded by positive acts or punished by negative acts performed by “givers” and “takers,” respectively. Results demonstrated that bilingual infants preferred prosocial agents whereas monolingual infants did not prefer prosocial or antisocial agents. Moreover, bilingual infants demonstrated selective preferences for actors who rewarded prosocial actors as well as for those who punished antisocial actors. In contrast, monolingual infants preferred actors who rewarded prosocial characters, but demonstrated no preference for actors who punished antisocial characters. Results point to heightened social sensitivity on the part of bilingual infants in evaluating morally relevant social events. Findings are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms that may link bilingual exposure and social evaluations in infancy.