Priming

ABSTRACT—We show that the mere hint of affiliation dra-matically increases prosocial behavior in infants. Eigh-teen-month-old infants helped a person in needmore often, and more spontaneously, when primed with photographs evoking affiliation than when primed with photographs evoking individuality. This study demonstrates that social primes can have an influence on infant behavior, and so opens up a wealth of possibilities for future research. In addition, these data have wide-ranging practical impli-cations, suggesting that subtle changes to the social envi-ronment can promote prosocial behavior in children. Throughout our evolutionary history, group living has been critical to our survival. Many mammals depend on groups in order to survive, but in humans, this dependence has swelled to unprecedented levels (Brewer, 2004). The extent of our de