Kiss and tell: study says saliva sharing a signal for babies learning about relationships
When two people share a kiss or one offers the other a bite of a bagel (during non-pandemic times) there’s likely not too much thought given to the fact that they’re swapping saliva.
After all, smooching and snack sharing are everyday, intimate behaviours that occur in nuclear families and close relationships.
However, new research shows that for babies and toddlers, interactions specifically involving saliva exchange serve as a cue about social attachments and who they can count on.
Young children expect people who share saliva to have close, distinctive relationships and “to respond to one another in distress,” according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
The findings suggest that babies can use these cues to try to figure out early in life who around them is most likely to offer help, and which relationships are close, the researchers said in a news release.
“People have hypothesized that infants may be able to do something like this for a really long time,” said first author Ashley J. Thomas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the brain and cognitive sciences department.
“How babies possibly learn about something as complex as the social world is a really old question that anthropologists have actually been asking,” Johnson said in a phone interview with CTV News, as she discussed the findings, which are novel in the field of developmental psychology.
The researchers studied the reactions of more than 150 young children, mostly in the United States, who took part in several experiments to see “if they do infer that two individuals who share saliva are likely to be in a thick relationship."
“‘Thick,’ in this case refers to a relationship that features high levels of attachment, for example, the types of intimate connections that lead to people kissing, sharing food and utensils, and, as a result, saliva.
EXPERIMENTAL PUPPET THEATRE
To answer their questions, the researchers observed toddlers and babies as they watched human actors and furry puppets interact via video chat.
In one set of experiments, the small children watched one puppet eat from the same orange slice as one actor, and play ball with a second actor.
Then, the puppet sat between the two people and showed signs of distress.
Based on earlier studies involving monkeys, the researchers theorized the babies would first look at the person whom they expected would help the distressed puppet, because in the monkey study, when the baby monkey cried, other members of the troop looked to the baby’s mother as if expecting her to respond.
Sure enough, the team from MIT found the toddlers and infants “looked first and longer” at the actor who had shared food with the puppet, expecting her to help with its distress, rather than looking at the actor who had shared a toy with the puppet.
Another set of experiments focused more specifically on saliva and involved an actor placing a finger into her mouth and then into the mouth of a puppet, or placing her finger on her forehead and then on the forehead of the puppet.
When the actor, this time standing between two puppets expressed distress, the children were again more likely to look toward the puppet that had engaged in saliva sharing.
The researchers suggest “young humans” may make use of the saliva-swapping behaviours they observe to help them understand the concept of a family structure.
But Thomas doesn’t want anyone to conclude that someone who has a “thin” relationship with a child, such as a daycare educator, is any less capable of taking care of them.
“My child’s daycare teachers are amazing. So I wouldn't expect that those daycare teachers would want to swap saliva with my daughter, but I also wouldn't expect them to have a long and enduring attachment with her,” Thomas explained.
“The idea is that basically both of those types of relationships, the ones that are friendly and cooperative, that don't involve these long and enduring attachments, and the ones that do, are both really important for humans,” she said.
However, if you can distinguish one from the other, she summed up, then you know what to expect.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.