Which of the following is an example of social referencing?

• A. The infant sees a rabbit, looks at her mother, who is smiling, then smiles.
• B. The infant smiles at the rabbit without looking at caregiver
• C. The infant ignores the rabbit
• D. The infant cries when seeing the rabbit

Answer: (A)

Social referencing is when a child looks to a caregiver’s facial expression to decide how to react to something new or ambiguous. In this example, the rabbit is unfamiliar, so the infant checks her mother, sees a smile, and then smiles in return. The mother’s positive emotion provides information that the situation is safe or pleasant, guiding the infant’s own response. The infant is using the caregiver’s cue to shape her behavior, which is the hallmark of social referencing.

If the infant didn’t look to the caregiver for guidance—smiling at the rabbit without the caregiver’s reaction, or simply crying or ignoring the rabbit—the response wouldn’t be social referencing, since it wouldn’t involve using another’s emotional signal to interpret the situation.