Babies Use Saliva-Based Gestures as Cue to Identify Social Relationships of People

Saliva, according to a new study, is one of the most effective mediums that are used by babies in terms of social familiarization. The factor is identified along with sharing gestures and kissing, which according to the authors, could help the infants determine a relationship between other people.

Social relationships are among the wide aspects needed to be honed in a child during its early development. Navigating social skills is critical for all people to survive in a diverse community. Babies and children could also learn how to exercise their social skills through learning who to trust in caring for them.

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Toddler Wearing Head Scarf in Bed

Identifying Social Relationships During Early Development

In a new study led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), neuroscientists determine how babies and young children distinguish social relationships or mutual obligations between other individuals they see. The familiarization is induced by the actions that the children perceive, including food sharing, kissing, and any other gestures where sharing of saliva is involved.

Babies and young children, according to the study, use saliva as an indicator to mark the relationships of people around them. The kids expect individuals who share saliva to come to the aid of each other in times of challenges such as distress. The identifier is much more effective than sharing toys or other gestures that do not involve an exchange of saliva, experts said. Categorizing the observation makes the infants develop cues to figure out which individuals are more likely to respond when help is needed.

MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences expert Rebecca Saxe, who is also the senior author of the research, said in a EurekAlert report that babies do not have any clues on how close and morally obligating relationships to work during their early development stages. To learn this aspect, the kids naturally observe what happens around them.

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Saliva Exchange Between People Used by Babies to Distinguish Relation Status of Other People

It is known in human society that people distinguish relationships through a 'thick' or 'thin' category. Thick relationships usually originate from the closest individuals and those who have strong attachments to a person, including family. This type of relationship is induced by mutual responsiveness and obligation between people.

Throughout the history of anthropology studies, experts theorized that people who are in thick relationships are fond of sharing bodily fluids, including saliva. According to lead author Ashely Thomas, the previous findings inspired the question regarding how infants define relationships, and how saliva acts as effective cues to help children recognize the connections they see between people.

The investigation was made possible through the help of toddlers who belong in the age group of 16.5 to 18.5 months, and babies who belong in 8.5 to 10 months. The observation included a presentation of sharing gestures between human actors and puppets.

Some of the sets performed in the play included a saliva exchange. The insights of the children regarding hte relationship of the characters were also tested through a display of distress between the characters. After a series of experiments, the authors found that children heavily consider the exchange of saliva as a cue to a social relationship.

Future studies are expected to be conducted regarding the same concept but will be tested in other families and infants from diverse cultures and structures. Adult subjects will also be examined through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to locate what regions are responsible for regulating the response towards saliva-based social relation assessments. The study was published in the journal Science, titled "Early concepts of intimacy: Young humans use saliva sharing to infer close relationships."