Social Referencing

Social referencing is the tendency of an infant, faced with an unfamiliar or ambiguous situation, to look to a trusted caregiver's facial expression or emotional reaction for information about how to respond, and to use that expression to guide their own subsequent behavior. The phenomenon is classically demonstrated with the visual cliff apparatus, an experimental setup that creates the visual impression of a sudden drop-off behind a transparent surface: an infant placed at the edge of the apparent cliff typically looks to the mother's face before deciding whether to cross, and is far more likely to retreat if she displays a fearful or worried expression than if she smiles or otherwise signals that it is safe. The behavior emerges over the first year of life as infants become able to read emotional cues from others and use them to regulate their own actions in situations they cannot yet evaluate on their own, and it is considered an important early mechanism through which children learn what to fear and what is safe from the people around them.