Can babies figure out who's naughty and who's nice? A new study by Yale psychologists says infants as young as 6 months seem to prefer nice, helpful people to those who are mean and hindering.

In the study, 6 and 10 month old babies watched a wooden doll with large eyes attempt to climb a hill. After several unsuccessful attempts, the "climber" was either helped to the top of the hill by a triangular character, or hindered in its attempts by a square character.

After giving the infants time to process the events (and presumably, a quick bottle and diaper change), the researchers measured the babies' attitudes towards the helper and hindering characters by seeing which character they reached for. In the study, 14 of the 16 10-month-olds, and all 12 of the six-month-old babies preferred the helper character.

The scientists seem to think this indicates "the presence of social evaluation so early in infancy suggests that assessing individuals by the nature of their interactions with others is central to processing the social world, both evolutionarily and developmentally." In addition, it may provide insight into the formation of moral reason and abstract concepts of right and wrong. Or it may simply prove that 9 out of 10 babies prefer triangles.