An investigation reported in the November 2007 issue of

An investigation reported in the November 2007 issue of Nature (Hamlin, Wynn, and Bloom) aimed at assessing whether infants take into account an individuals actions towards others in evaluating that individual as appealing or aversive, perhaps laying the foundation for social interaction In one component of the study, each of sixteen 10monthold healthy infants (in New England) were shown a climber character (a piece of wood with Google eyes glued onto it) that could not make it up a hill in two tries Then they were shown two scenarios for the climbers next try, one where the climber was pushed to the top of the hill by another character (helper) and one where the climber was pushed back down the hill by another character (hinderer) Each infant was alternately shown these two scenarios many times Then the child was presented with both pieces of wood (the helper and the hinderer) and asked to pick one to play with In the study 14 out of the 16 babies picked the helper toy. Does this provide evidence that such 10monthold infants have a genuine preference for the helper toy?