Professor Gergely Csibra
Talk Title: Human infants infer social relations from observed interactions.
Abstract: Observed social interactions between agents provide information not only about their individual dispositions but also about their social relations. Recent studies demonstrate that when human infants observe actions of an agent that could potentially affect the welfare of another individual (the patient), they tend to include the patient in the representation of the event. We do not find evidence that infants would attribute social dispositions to agents. Rather, infants seem to be concerned with the social relation in which the agent and the patient are embedded. For example, in conflict situations the succeeding actor is inferred to be dominant over the failing actor, tolerated taking may indicate shared long-term interest between the agent and the patient, and a giving action may be represented as an episode of exchange among equal peers that invites reciprocation. Based on Alan Fiske’s theory of basic forms of social relations, I outline a proposal on how human infants could infer the type of social relation in which the participating agents are likely embedded.
Date: January 31st at 13:00
Location: Room B04 Malet Street (Birkbeck Main Building)
No booking required