Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jan 18;14(1):e0209253.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209253. eCollection 2019.

Lifespan differences in emotional contagion while watching emotion-eliciting videos

Ted Ruffman  1 , Rebecca Then  1 , Christie Cheng  1 , Kana Imuta  2
Affiliations

Lifespan differences in emotional contagion while watching emotion-eliciting videos

Ted Ruffman et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Previous research has examined empathic concern by presenting toddlers with a sad stimulus and examining their emotional response, with the conclusion that toddlers display empathy. Yet, such research has failed to include basic control conditions involving some other aversive stimulus such as white noise. Nor has it compared toddlers to adults to examine potential development in empathy. In the present study, we showed toddlers and adults four video types: infant crying, infant laughing, infant babbling, and a neutral infant accompanied by white noise. We then coded happiness and sadness while viewing the videos, and created a difference score (happiness minus sadness), testing 52 toddlers and 61 adults. Whereas adults showed more sadness towards infant crying than any other stimulus, toddlers' response to crying and white noise was similar. Thus, the toddler response to crying was comparable to previous studies (slight sadness), but was no different to white noise and was significantly reduced relative to adults. As such, toddlers' response seemed to be better characterized as a reaction to an aversive stimulus rather than empathy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean happiness minus Sadness Difference scores (SD).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Martin GB, Clark RD. Distress crying in neonates: Species and peer specificity. Dev Psychol. 1982;18: 3–9.
    1. Sagi A, Hoffman ML. Empathic distress in the newborn. Dev Psychol. 1976;12: 175–176.
    1. Simner ML. Newborn’s response to the cry of another infant. Dev Psychol. 1975;5: 136–150.
    1. Ruffman T, Lorimer B, Scarf D. Do infants really experience emotional contagion? CHILD DEV PERSPECT 2017. August 2;11(4):270–274.
    1. Parsons CE, Young KS, Jegindø EE, Vuust P, Stein A, Kringlebach ML. Music training and empathy positively impact adults’ sensitivity to infant distress. Front Psychol. 2014;5: 1440 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01440 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types