Preverbal infants expect agents exhibiting counterintuitive capacities to gain access to contested resources

@article{Meng2021PreverbalIE,
  title={Preverbal infants expect agents exhibiting counterintuitive capacities to gain access to contested resources},
  author={Xianwei Meng and Yo Nakawake and Kazuhide Hashiya and Emily Rachel Reed Burdett and Jonathan Jong and Harvey Whitehouse},
  journal={Scientific Reports},
  year={2021},
  volume={11}
}
Claims to supernatural power have been used as a basis for authority in a wide range of societies, but little is known about developmental origins of the link between supernatural power and worldly authority. Here, we show that 12- to 16-month-old infants expect agents exhibiting counterintuitive capacities to win out in a two-way standoff over a contested resource. Infants watched two agents gain a reward using either physically intuitive or physically counterintuitive methods, the latter… 
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2 Citations

2 Citations

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