Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Environmental Impact on Infants?

At heart, I'm a frustrated psychologist that wants to study people and see how they work.  When I say that, it's less of the dissecting and more in a Mythbusters/social-experimentation sort of way. That's one reason I listen to lectures on iTunes U.  One of them was about how warmth affects living creatures in profound, often subconscious ways.  In an experiment they had monkeys raised by robot mothers, the difference being one group had warm mothers and the others had cold. The ones with warm robot mothers adapted well and turned out fine, while the ones with cold mothers were very messed up.

This makes me think about the fact that in a random search one day, I divided serial killer up by zodiac signs, because I was tired of seeing "ALL Aquariuses are honest" when in fact some of the most dishonest people I've known fell into that category. So I started going through and sorting serial killers by birthdays and found something rather weird.  There are more serial killers born from mid November to January than any other time of year.  When I say more, it was a significant difference, as in double. ( On a side note, all the Libra serial killers were medical profession, doctors and nurses killing patients *shiver* )

It's proven that the time of year does in fact have an impact on children, because children born in August tend to be healthier than those born the rest of the year.  So perhaps our first view of the world might have some impact. If these serial killers are all born in cold months, and we know that cold has a negative impact on infant primates developmentally, could being born during the dreariest time of year have some influence on their natures, and a contributing factor to deviant behavior?

Also we know that one of the first colors that a baby can see is red, and being August babies are healthier, does coming into a world full of colors they can see, have an influence on them? There is more red in fall than any other time of year.  Does that beautiful environment perhaps influence them to want to be more a part of that world, a warm and colorful world, even as it's getting cooler, they may have more hope of it being warm again than a child who has only experienced a cold and dreary world from the moment they entered it.

Then I have to ask the question, if color does affect babies in a healthy way, then how does that impact children who are red/green color blind?  Would that cause a shift?  Obviously I'm not saying everyone born in cold months or color blind is prone to be a serial killer, but that it could be a contributing factor combined with other ones like genetics and other environmental influences.

This is all speculation of course, and just from my own personal observations; however, if anyone wants to throw a grant at me, I'll gladly accept! My ultimate question is "What is the impact on environmental stimulus such as warmth and color on newborn infants, and is it a contributing factor to their perception of the world throughout their adult lives?"  I'm curious if it could contribute to depression, anxiety, or other factors. If anyone has any further documentation to feed my curiosity, feel free to contribute.  All I have is curiosity and questions!

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