Why Do Feelings Come in Different Sizes?
This is the text version of the interactive 3D documentary. 한국어
Contents · Chapter 2 Why the difference?
Born different
Even four-month-old babies react differently
Different from the start
Researchers waved a toy the babies had never seen in front of four-month-olds. Some babies kicked their arms and legs and cried, while others just watched quietly. About one baby in five reacted strongly. So the size of our feelings starts to differ when we are very young.
Why?The feeling style each of us is born with is called temperament. In this research, babies who reacted strongly were more often careful around strangers and new places as they grew up. But not all of them were, and many children changed as they grew.
Go furtherThe Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan followed these children for decades. About 20% of the four-month-olds reacted strongly to unfamiliar things. The two lines on screen are an illustrative model of that difference.
View in 3D →Read more: Harvard Gazette (2010) — Kagan’s temperament research