Sensitivity to the evaluation of others emerges by 24 months.

Although the human proclivity to engage in impression management and care for reputation is ubiquitous, the question of its developmental outset remains open. In 4 studies, we demonstrate that the sensitivity to the evaluation of others (i.e., evaluative audience perception) is manifest by 24 months. In a first study, 14- to 24-month-old children (N = 49) were tested in situations in which the attention of an audience was systematically...