For example when a kid just barely hits their head and they are fine, when the parent rushes over and starts to comfort them the baby cries as if they are really hurt?
Same thing happens even if the parent just bangs on the wall and then holds the toddlers head and says “oh noooo poor baby” and comforts the kid, the baby will cry… why is that???
In: 1
As babies we react to situations based on how people around us, especially primary caregivers, act.
There was a study done with crawling infants where they were encouraged to crawl across a table. One end of the table was clear (plexiglass or somesuch). When the baby reached the clear portion, parents would either act the same (encouraging) or show fear. The baby whose parents showed fear would stop and not crawl onto the clear part, and the baby who was encouraged continued on without fear.
So if the primary caregiver is acting as if something is wrong, our instinct is to cry or otherwise react as if something is wrong.
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