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Three babies, born on the same day. One is crying, red in the face. One is wide-eyed and looking around, one is fast asleep. Just one day old, so why are they already so different? Are babies born with a personality? Pretty much. Every baby arrives with a kind of base coat.
Busy or calm, quick to cry or quick to smile, leaning toward new things, or pulling away. Scientists call this base coat temperament. Personality gets painted on top of it later, stroke by stroke. How early does it show up? Before birth, while the baby is still in the womb.
One American study tracked thirty-one babies before birth, recording their kicks and heartbeats from week twenty. The ones that moved more in the womb were later described by their parents as more active and harder to settle. Now an experiment. Scientists at Harvard brought in more than five hundred four-month-olds.
They showed them things they'd never seen, played sounds they'd never heard, and offered smells they'd never smelled. About one in five kicked and flailed, and started to cry. About two in five just looked, and stayed calm. They checked again at four and a half. Nearly half of the kickers had grown shy around strangers. Of the calm babies, only one in ten.
So the base coat is real, and it shows up years later. But among the kickers, only thirteen percent were shy at every single check. Most of them changed along the way. The scientist who led the study put it this way: temperament limits what a child can become, but it doesn't decide who they will be.
So how does the base coat meet everyday life? In nineteen fifty-six, two doctors in New York began following more than a hundred children, from babyhood all the way to adulthood. Some kids were easy, some were difficult, and some were slow to warm up, they just needed more time. What mattered most wasn't the type, it was the fit. A slow-to-warm-up kid with a grown-up who doesn't rush them does just fine.
Twins tell the same story. Identical twins are more alike in temperament than fraternal twins. So part of the base coat comes from genes. The rest comes from life in the womb, and every day after birth. So how much is born, and how much is made? It's different for every child, and scientists still haven't worked it out.
What kind of baby were you? Ask your parents, then tell me in the comments.
Just one day old: one is crying, red in the face, one is wide-eyed and looking around, one is fast asleep.
Are they born with a personality? Pretty much. Every baby arrives with a kind of “base coat”: busy or calm, quick to cry or quick to smile, leaning toward new things or pulling away.
Scientists call this base coat temperament. Personality gets painted on top of it later, stroke by stroke. A yellow base tints every color a little, but what gets painted depends on the days that follow.
One American study tracked thirty-one babies in the womb, recording their kicks and heartbeats from week twenty of pregnancy.
The ones that moved more in the womb were later described by their parents as more active and harder to settle.
Scientists at Harvard showed four-month-olds things they had never seen, played sounds they had never heard, and offered smells they had never smelled.
About one in five kicked, flailed and cried. About two in five just looked, and stayed calm.
At four and a half, who had grown shy around strangers? Nearly half of the kickers, but only one in ten of the calm babies.
The base coat is real, and it still shows years later.
Yet only 13% of the kickers were shy at every single check. Most of them changed along the way.
As the scientist who led the study put it: temperament limits what a child can become, but it doesn’t guarantee a particular personality.
In 1956, two doctors in New York began following more than a hundred children, from babyhood into adulthood. They saw roughly three kinds:
Plenty of kids fit none of these neatly; they were a mix.
What mattered most wasn’t the type, it was the fit. A slow-to-warm-up kid with a grown-up who doesn’t rush them does just fine.
Identical twins (left) are more alike in temperament than fraternal twins (right), so part of the base coat comes from genes. The rest comes from life in the womb, and every day after birth.
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