“These findings suggest that babies either feel something like schaudenfreude – pleasure when an individual they dislike or consider threatening experiences harm,” according to lead author Kiley Hamlin of the University of British Columbia. “Or babies have some early understanding of social alliances, recognizing that the ‘enemy of their enemy’ is their friend.”…

While it may not mean all babies are doomed to be racist, it does show that the tendency to distrust or dislike people unlike ourselves develops even earlier than we thought.