Copycat behavior in children is universal and may help promote human culture

Monday, May 3, 2010 - 14:00 in Psychology & Sociology

Children learn a great deal by imitating adults. A new study of Australian preschoolers and Kalahari Bushman children finds that a particular kind of imitation - overimitation, in which a child copies everything an adult shows them, not just the steps that lead to some outcome - appears to be a universal human activity, rather than something the children of middle-class parents pick up. The work helps shed light on how humans develop and transmit culture.

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