Home » Psychology news » Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows
Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows
July 28, 2014 by NewsBot
Babies can learn what to fear in the first days of life just by smelling the odor of their distressed mothers’, new research suggests. And not just “natural” fears: If a mother experienced something before pregnancy that made her fear something specific, her baby will quickly learn to fear it too -- through her odor when she feels fear.
