Do young infants respond socially to human hands?

This study revealed that 4- and 6-month-old infants produced social-communicative behaviours only in response to faces, and not in response to hands. However, infants’ spontaneous responses to hands were unique in that they scanned the space above the hands, perhaps searching for a face.

Research highlights
► 4- and 6-Month-old infants generated spontaneous social behaviours including smiling and vocalising significantly more to a human face than to human hands or nonhuman objects.
► When presented with hands, infants tended to scan the space above them, as if looking for a face.
► The presence of hands did not directly engender social responding in these 4- and 6-month-old infants but their tendency to scan above the hands suggests that they may expect a face to go with hands.