Six-month-olds see people who imitate them as more friendly

Babies know when you imitate them - and they perceive it as a sign of friendliness, according to a new study. Swedish research suggest the imitation game is an infant's favourite way of interacting with adults, making them more engaged and likely to approach an adult. In experiments, six-month-old babies looked and smiled longer, and tried to approach the adult more often during the close mirroring of their actions. Babies also responded to being imitated with'testing behaviour' – actions that encouraged the adult imitator to imitate in turn. Imitation on behalf of the adult helps nurture a baby's sensitivity to others and could be a driving force of driving early social cognition, the research team report.