Why do kids cover their eyes when they’re hiding?

Children often close or cover their eyes to hide, and researchers at the University of Cambridge wanted to find out why. Click through for more interesting snippets.

Now things get a little complicated. In both studies so far, when the children thought they were invisible by virtue of their eyes being covered, they nonetheless agreed that their head and their body were visible. They seemed to be making a distinction between their “self” that was hidden, and their body, which was still visible. Taken together with the fact that it was the concealment of the eyes that seemed to be the crucial factor for feeling hidden, the researchers wondered if their invisibility beliefs were based around the idea that there must be eye contact between two people — a meeting of gazes — for them to see each other (or at least, to see their “selves”).

(via @noahwg)

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