From Melinda Wenner
Your article on why children take a long time to grow up cites the fact that “babies will start to cry when they hear other babies in distress” to support the hypothesis that infants have some degree of empathy (7 December 2002, p 44).
This conclusion ignores other possibilities – for example, that hearing screams might make a baby uncomfortable or even afraid. Discomfort and fear are, in my book, more plausible causes for a baby’s cries than empathy.
London, UK
