There’s a dead, leafless plant in the corner of my living room. I haven’t discarded it yet because its pot is heavy and hard to move. Besides, I have better things to do, like pose my baby next to said pot and snap photos, like the one you see here.
I never really gave much thought to the fact that my son is smiling in this photo. He’s generally a happy guy and, being a baby, I figured he probably didn’t realize that a dead house plant shouldn’t necessarily warrant a grin.
But the results of a recent study gave me pause–maybe, just maybe, he was smiling out of relief. Maybe he was actually happy that the plant has met its maker… because he KNOWS that plants can’t be trusted!
Yale University psychologists Annie Wertz and Karen Wynn have found that infants take an average of five seconds longer to touch plants than other objects put before them, according to a study published in the January 2014 issue of the journal Cognition.
Alice Gomstyn 