As early as 18 months, children show compassion for others. In a study by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, children of this age showed through their facial expressions or statements that they were touched by the suffering of another person, according to a statement from the university on Tuesday.
How empathetic children react depends on the sensitivity of their caregivers. The more sensitive the mothers in the study were to their children’s needs, the more the children were able to show compassion for strangers by the second year of life. Compassion is therefore socially acquired.
According to the researchers, in order to experience compassion, a child must be able to distinguish between themselves and another person. It only acquires this ability during the second year of life. It can also be observed, for example, in children recognizing themselves in the mirror.
Sign of compassion
For the study, a team of researchers observed 127 mother-child pairs during behavioral experiments over a period of one and a half years. Signs of compassion from children were recorded in playful situations at four different points in time. The children observed how another person slightly pushed themselves and felt pain. The children’s reaction was compared to their behavior when they saw another person laughing.
