Newborns' perception of approach and withdrawal from biological movement: A closeness story

Abstract

Since birth, infants discriminate the biological motion (BM) revealed by point-light displays (PLDs). To date, no studies have explored whether newborns differentiate BM that approaches rather than withdraws from them. Yet, approach and withdrawal are two fundamental motivations in the socio-emotional world, key to developing empathy and prosocial behavior. Through a looking-behavior paradigm, we demonstrated that a few hours after birth, a human figure approaching attracted more visual attention than a human figure receding, showing that newborns are attuned to PLDs of others moving toward rather than walking away from them. Further, a withdrawing body appears to be less attractive than withdrawing scrambled points. Altogether, these observations support the existence of an early predisposition toward social closeness that might have its roots in an evolutionary perspective.