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Review
. 2023 Jul-Aug;14(4):e1643.
doi: 10.1002/wcs.1643. Epub 2023 Jan 19.

Understanding preferences in infancy

Youjung Choi  1 , Yuyan Luo  2
Affiliations
Review

Understanding preferences in infancy

Youjung Choi et al. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2023 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

A preference is defined as a dispositional state that helps explain why a person chooses one option over another. Preference understanding is a significant part of interpreting and predicting others' behavior, which can also help to guide social encounters, for instance, to initiate interactions and even form relationships based on shared preferences. Cognitive developmental research in the past several decades has revealed that infants have relatively sophisticated understandings about others' preferences, as part of investigations into how young children make sense of others' behavior in terms of mental states such as intentions, dispositions including preferences, and epistemic states. In recent years, research on early psychological knowledge expands to including infant understanding of social situations. As such, infants are also found to use their preference understandings in their social life. They treat favorably others who share their own preferences, and they prefer prosocial and similar others (e.g., those who speak their language). In reviewing these results, we point out future directions for research and conclude with further suggestions and recommendations. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development Psychology > Development and Aging.

Keywords: infancy; preference; theory of mind.

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References

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