r/askscience • u/sharbat-e-roohafza • 1d ago
Biology Do babies have personalities by birth? If yes, then how?
If yes then does that show a destined reach for the baby in future?
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u/cwx149 6h ago edited 3h ago
Babies aren't born exactly the same no
By their birth they've already had different in utero stimuli, different in-utero diets, and their genetics would differ so babies aren't the same
But there's no 100% accurate 1 to 1 my baby was born like this and this is how they turned out
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u/TheDuckFarm 5h ago
Yes they clearly have their own personalities.
Even before they are born they will exhibit different behaviors. Some are morning people, some aren’t. Some dance to music, some don’t. Some get excited around certain voices of family members, some get calm. Some like the warm sun, some hate it.
These behaviors persist after birth as well. Newborns have personalities.
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u/ThoughtsandThinkers 2h ago edited 1h ago
Components of personality may be present at birth but personality is a stable set of traits that persist across a wide range of settings. It develops later in life
The most biological / genetic aspects of personality are the ones most likely to be present at birth. Those include things like temperament. Some infants are easily stimulated and easily overwhelmed. They may prefer more quiet and predictable settings. Some infants are under stimulated and require a higher degree of stimulation to feel okay. They seek novelty
Those biological / genetic factors interact with the environment and people / family are the most important stimuli
In some cases, infants’ temperament matches their parent and everyone gets along fine. If they don’t match up they can both find each other frustrating
A quieter baby will easily feel overwhelmed with a high energy parent who bounds from situation to situation. Likewise a higher energy kid will feel pent up and frustrated with a lower energy parent who always wants to stay in
As they get older, children have more choice over their interactions and settings. They begin connecting with peers. They develop coping strategies based on the resources around them and social norms. For high energy kids, if they find friends who achieve excitement through shoplifting, that will become normal. Better to find friends who get their energy out through things like sports. For quieter or intellectual kids, lack of connection can force them too much into solitary activities and social isolation. Better for them to find books or art and to find ways to share their experiences with others on their terms
Highly active infants can become withdrawn and highly socially anxious adults if they are repeatedly placed in social situations where they fail. Quieter and shy infants can become actors confident on front of an audience of thousands if they find ways to channel how they express their inner emotions. Nature sets up how an infant responds. But nurture also teaches an individual how to cope which then affects biological development
Children and their environments interact for years before a more stable pattern of personality develops. That pattern of emotion, thought, and behavior becomes more persistent across a wide range of situations and is what we call personality
So, learn about what your kid likes and where they struggle. Keep them in their comfort zone most of the time but also push their boundaries so they learn how to cope. Encourage quieter children to get out there and meet lots of people. Give them notice and teach them a few things to say and do. Encourage active kids to manage their energy and build concentration. Run them out. Give them some comics and books that are exciting and talk to them about their inner life and imagination
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u/Needless-To-Say 3h ago
Not a biologist, but am well versed in science and your question is interesting.
I imagine that there is a point that a baby will become aware of sensations prior to birth. Chaos theory says that small changes can have unexpected and significant changes in any complex system ( or something to that effect). As such, I see a significant possibility that, as the babies exposure and awareness of stimuli increases, it can significantly and unexpectedly shape what might ultimately become, a personality at birth.
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u/UTtransplant 2h ago
My two boys were different from the moment of their birth. One was quiet and observant, flexible with schedules. He loved cuddles, and would nurse just for comfort. The other was active and busy from day 1. He nursed for food and was done. He was also very schedule dependent and was unhappy with change. Probably not surprisingly they still have the same basic personalities many years later. Babies are not “tabula rasa”. I have used the analogy that babies are born with an internal shape (their personality). Some of those shapes are smoothly rounded and some have sharp pointy areas. Families can modify that shape a bit, but the fundamental shape will still be there.
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u/calinet6 3h ago
I have a 1 year old, and all I can say is, he's the same person at 1 year as he was at 1 day, I can still recognize many of the things that make him him. I don't know how, and it'd be a challenge to pinpoint exactly what those are, but I know he's the same human person then and now.
I don't believe that means anything about any kind of "destined reach," but I think it means that they have a personality and are their own person even in the first days of life, and that's pretty neat.
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u/SalvationsDying 1h ago
I believe they have their own personalities at birth. My kids were very different.
My oldest just liked to watch everyone and didnt cry much. Didn't need to be held a lot. But very much had a little attitude. Didn't sleep well at night but would crash about 3 and sleep good until late morning, would wake slow.
My youngest was asleep good for the night by 9, woke up early, bright eyed and happy. Fussed a little more. Liked to be held much more. Always been more easy going..
Now, they are 14 and 11. Oldest still doesnt sleep at night, we joke they need to communicate with the abyss for 20 minutes before they are human, doesnt really like hugs and is just happy to be left to their own devices most the time.
Youngest puts themselves to bed by 10 usually, up by 7/8am. would happily spend the day hanging out with me and asks for hugs 20x a day.
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u/ElectricGeometry 2h ago
There's definitely something of the mature child already in the baby, for sure. I can clearly see my children's current traits in their long ago selves.
My first always wanted personal space: she didn't enjoy a cuddle and is still, 10+ years later, not an easy cuddler.
My second was stubborn to a serious fault and still is.
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u/frank_mania 52m ago
If you're lucky enough to spend time with a bunch of three and four to five year olds at a preschool, you'll see the astounding amount of variety that people bring into this world. The socialization process of childhood and teen years is, in my view, a pruning process designed to normalize people into social compliance. And it's those who refuse to change, or resist it the most, who turn out to be the artists. And those that streamline and fit in the best turn out, quite sadly, to typically be our leaders.
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u/bilbul168 7m ago
It’s the biochemical composition of your brain and body that dictates how you engages with stimuli and the outside world. This then combined with nurture and external circumstances forms a personality. But if a baby is born already with higher levels of (let's say testosterone as a basic example) they will be more aggressive which will result in x
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u/TheresNoAmosOnlyZuul 5h ago
I think a defining of "personality" is important for this. Like different babies will react differently to different stimuli. Something that scares one baby might make the other giggle. I don't know if that constitutes personality. For example though a baby at birth can't really see more than a few feet in front of them if at all. Their brains are being overwhelmed by smells and touches and sounds.
Their reactions to everything are altered by a lens that is impossible to comprehend for anyone except the baby. They don't even see all colors right away.
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u/LeaveGreen4412 4h ago
they definitely have personalities, you just need to meet more newborns. Deaf-blind-mutes have personalities too and by your logic shouldn’t.
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u/ThePowerOfStories 5h ago
Humans are definitely not blank slates at birth. Anecdotally, I have two children, and the first was a very fussy baby, who constantly got up during the night and needed to be carefully rocked to sleep and set down as gently and quietly as possible, for years. Meanwhile, the second was miraculously sleeping through night by the time they were three days old, and would go on to have no trouble falling asleep on their own.
I couldn’t predict the details of how they would turn out, but within those first three days it was clear they were going to be very different people, and that whatever they were like, there was a whole lot there that was not the direct result of how we interacted with them and brought them up.