Cognitive Science & Psychology Division, ULAB

Previous research has documented that infants as young as six months have intuitions about affiliations regarding shared preferences as well as an understanding of homophily. Homophily ultimately influences friendships, marriages, hiring decisions — the interactions of everyday life. Moreover, understanding shared preferences is relevant to predicting human behavior, as well as guiding child development and socialization.The present study aims to (1) replicate earlier work proving the infants’ understanding of homophily and (2) extend our understanding of infant homophily in regards to characterizing the differences in homophily by sex. Both the replication and extension support the original study by proving the original theory that infants can recognize homophilic attractions. The extension, however, explores the roles that sex and test trial type play in homophily, which the original researchers did not observe. Ultimately, the extension provides preliminary evidence that there is a preference to affiliate with the same sex.