title: Social looking, social referencing and humor perception in 6- and-12-month-old infants.
abstract: Social referencing refers to infants' use of caregivers as emotional referents in ambiguous situations (Walden, 1993). Studies of social referencing typically require ambulation, thereby over-looking younger, non-ambulatory infants (i.e., ≤8-months) and resulting in a widespread assumption that young infants do not employ this strategy. Using a novel approach that does not require mobility, we found that when parents provided unsolicited affective cues during an ambiguous-absurd (i.e., humorous) event, 6-month-olds employ one component of social referencing, social looking Additionally, 6-month-olds who did not laugh at the event were significantly more likely to look toward parents than their counterparts who found the event funny. Sequential analyses revealed that, following a reference to a smiling parent, 6-month olds were more likely to smile at the parent, but by 12 months were more likely to smile at the event suggesting that older infants are influenced by parental affect in humorous situations. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed, as well as the usefulness of studying humor for understanding important developmental phenomena.
authors: Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, United States. Electronic address: gina.mireault@jsc.edu.
authors: Gina C
authors: GC
authors: Mireault
authors: University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States.
authors: Susan C
authors: SC
authors: Crockenberg
authors: University of New Hampshire-Manchester, Manchester, NH, United States.
authors: John E
authors: JE
authors: Sparrow
authors: Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, United States.
authors: Christine A
authors: CA
authors: Pettinato
authors: Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, United States.
authors: Kelly C
authors: KC
authors: Woodard
authors: Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, United States.
authors: Kirsten
authors: K
authors: Malzac
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007845:Laughter / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012904:Smiling / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Emotion regulation; Humor; Infancy; Social development; Social referencing