Not Just Food, Infants Chew on Social Cues at Dinner Table

                Babies do a lot more than just playing with their Sippy cups on the dinner table. A study says that babies pay close attention to what food is being eaten around them and especially who is eating it. The study adds that evidence to a growing body of research suggesting even very young children think in sophisticated ways about subtle social cues. The researchers found one year olds expect people to like same foods, unless those people belong to different language. The study underscores just how tightly our food choices are coupled with our social thinking. Kids are sensitive to cultural groups early in life. When babies see someone eat, they are not just learning about food – they are also learning about who eats what with whom. An ability to think about people as being ‘same versus different’ and perhaps even ‘us versus them’ starts very early in life. While monolingual babies expected people who speak different languages to like different foods, bilingual babies expected that people who speak different languages would eat the same foods.