WE’RE ALL NATURAL BORN EINSTEINS

Newborns can grasp complex concepts like gravity and morality, as fascinating Netflix series Babies proves

Babies appear helpless, and until quite recently experts generally agreed that infants are blank canvases waiting to be shaped by the world. But now many ideas about newborns have been debunked. For example, did you know babies can distinguish right from wrong? Or that a three-month-old can understand complex ideas like gravity, and can differentiate between every monkey they see?

The second part of fascinating Netflix series Babies reveals astonishing details about how smart they really are. It comes as no surprise to Amelia and Rich of south London, whose son Pascoe was filmed. ‘We expected Pascoe to be pretty static, but early on we saw he was alert,’ says Rich. ‘From just days old he was following us with his eyes, trying to connect with us.’

Now Pascoe is nearly three, he plays imaginary games in which good guy Spider-man defeats the baddie. But scientists on the show have discovered Pascoe may have understood this morality from birth. ‘Kids in pre-school evaluate others’ behaviour,’ explains Kiley Hamlin, associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. ‘But no one’s asked if babies are noticing what’s good and bad.’

Professor Hamlin’s research tool was the puppet show. Babies were shown a character trying to climb a hill. One puppet is helping it up, while another is pushing it back down. ‘Babies can’t tell us in words what they like more, but they can make choices,’ she says. ‘We bring out a board with the bad and good puppets on to see which the babies touch first. Almost every baby chooses the helper.

‘To observe such a thing in a baby barely three months old is unbelievable. I had a strong sense that humans are taught morality over time, but these results opened up the possibility that there’s some innate basis to our capacity for morality.’

Babies also seem to have an understanding of gravity. They love throwing things on the floor, but even before that game they realise things fall down. ‘Are babies born knowing how the world works?’ asks Susan Hespos, a professor of cognitive psychology at Northwestern University, near Chicago.

Professor Hespos did an experiment with children aged four to six months. A block is pushed back and forth on top of a box. Then the block is pushed off the top but instead of falling, the block magically floats in the air.

Babies instantly recognise that a floating block is not normal and look longer at that incident. ‘It’s not very hi-tech,’ says Professor Hespos. ‘But as early as we can test, infants have an expectation that unsupported objects fall.’ A 2005 British study showed us another baby skill: they can distinguish between individual monkeys. ‘Monkeys are unique but if you show faces to adults they can’t tell them apart,’ says Dr Kang Lee, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto. ‘But babies at three months old can easily.’ Yet as babies see more human faces, by 12 months they lose the skill. ‘This is called pruning,’ says Dr Lee. ‘As babies recognise their mothers, those neural networks get stronger, while those for recognising other species die out.’ Through their research, scientists have found that even tiny babies are a lot cleverer than we thought. ‘I’d never thought about babies having to learn a language, how to walk, how to grab,’ says Pascoe’s mother Amelia. ‘But when you see a baby learning to become a person, it’s pretty amazing.’ Vicki Power Babies is on Netflix now.

Parents Amelia and Rich with baby Pascoe in the series