Why humans are helpless at birth and what it tells us about human nature
A human baby arrives in the world in a strange state, eyes open, ears working, brain growing fast, yet unable to move through the world in any meaningful way. That mix is the heart of a new argument from University of Ottawa psychologist Stuart Hammond, who says developmental science has not paid enough attention to what human helplessness might mean. Writing in Child Development Perspectives, Hammond argues that this long period of dependence is not just an inconvenience of birth or an uninteresting early stage. It may help explain how humans became such a socially cooperative and adaptable species. Human newborns do not fit neatly into the usual animal categories. Some mammals are born highly helpless, or altricial, with weak sensory and motor systems. Others are more precocial, meaning they arrive with stronger senses and movement. Rats fall toward the helpless end. Horses fall toward the capable end. Humans, Hammond notes, are unusual because they seem to combine traits from both sides. Human infants have open eyes and ears at birth, like more precocial animals, …
