This study is the first to examine whether a preference to imitate more
confident individuals is present in infancy. We found that, at 24 months,
infants prefer to imitate both familiar and novel actions demonstrated
confidently rather than unconfidently, but that no such preference exists at
18 months. Furthermore, after repeatedly witnessing an individual’s confidence
or lack of confidence, 24-month-olds (but not 18-month-olds) continue
to prefer imitating a previously confident individual on a subsequent
action demonstrated neutrally, but did not transfer this preferential learning
to a word-learning situation.