<p>
Children just 3 months old prefer to look at people with similar skin color to their own. Babies also prefer people with similar accents and who speak the same language as they do. In fact, if a child is offered food from two people–one who speaks the baby’s language and the other who does not–the child will prefer the food offered by the native speaker. These innate preferences are being uncovered by a Harvard research team led by Elizabeth Spelke, <a title=”profiled in the British newspaper <I style=” mso-bidi-font-style:=”” normal”=””>Telegraph” href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/04/30/sm_babies03.xml” target=”_blank”>profiled in the British newspaper <i>Telegraph</i>
</a>. Some hope that these discoveries will eventually able to reduce or eliminate racial prejudice, but before that can happen, Spelke says, “we have a great deal more to learn.”</p>
<p>(Thanks, <a title=”3 Quarks Daily” href=”http://www.3quarksdaily.com/” target=”_blank”>3 Quarks Daily</a>.)</p>
<p>–<i>
<a href=”http://www.bennettgordon.com/”>Bennett Gordon</a>
</i>
</p>
<p>
<i>Image by <a title=”Dean Johnson” href=”http://flickr.com/photos/deanj/174964974/” target=”_blank”>Dean Johnson</a>, licensed under <a title=”Creative Commons” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en” target=”_blank”>Creative Commons</a>.</i>
</p>
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