<div dir="ltr"><header id="gmail-story-header" class="gmail-story-header" style="margin-right:30px;margin-left:30px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:16px"><div id="gmail-story-meta" class="gmail-story-meta" style="margin-bottom:20px"><h1 id="gmail-headline" class="gmail-headline" style="font-size:2rem;line-height:2.25rem;font-weight:500;margin:0px 0px 10px;font-feature-settings:'kern' 1;color:rgb(0,0,0)">4-Year-Olds Don’t Act Like Trump</h1><div id="gmail-story-meta-footer" class="gmail-story-meta-footer" style="border-top:1px solid rgb(226,226,226);padding-top:14px;border-bottom:1px solid rgb(226,226,226);padding-bottom:16px;display:flex"><p class="gmail-byline-dateline" style="margin:0px 45px 3px 0px;font-size:1rem;line-height:17px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif"><span class="gmail-byline" style="font-size:0.6875rem;line-height:0.75rem;font-weight:700;font-family:nyt-cheltenham-sh,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;margin-right:12px">By <span class="gmail-byline-author" style="white-space:nowrap">ALISON GOPNIK New York Times</span></span><time class="gmail-dateline" datetime="2017-05-21T14:23:27-04:00" style="white-space:nowrap;font-size:0.6875rem;line-height:0.75rem;font-family:nyt-cheltenham-sh,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-left:0px">MAY 20, 2017</time></p><div class="gmail-story-meta-footer-sharetools" style="margin-top:0px;display:flex"><button class="gmail-button gmail-comments-button gmail-theme-speech-bubble" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 2px;font-size:0.75rem;vertical-align:middle;line-height:1rem;font-family:nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;border-radius:3px;display:inline-flex;padding:0px 0px 4px;border-width:initial;border-style:none;border-color:initial;color:rgb(102,102,102);text-transform:uppercase;overflow:visible;min-width:24px"><span class="gmail-icon" style="display:flex;line-height:0;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;background:transparent;min-width:24px;min-height:12px;padding:5px;border:1px solid rgb(102,102,102);color:rgb(51,51,51);border-radius:4px"><span class="gmail-button-text" style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle"><br></span></span></button></div></div></div></header><div class="gmail-story-body-supplemental" style="display:flex;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-story-body gmail-story-body-1" style="flex-grow: 1;"><figure id="gmail-media-100000005118510" class="gmail-media gmail-photo gmail-lede gmail-layout-large-horizontal" style="display:flex;margin:0px 45px 45px;clear:both;width:540px"><div class="gmail-image" style="margin-bottom:7px"><img src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/21/opinion/sunday/21gopnik/21gopnik-master768-v2.jpg" alt="" class="gmail-media-viewer-candidate" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; width: 540px;"><div class="gmail-media-action-overlay" style="border-radius:6px;opacity:0;border:1px solid rgba(200,200,200,0.8)"><span class="gmail-icon gmail-sprite-icon" style="display:inline-block;line-height:0;vertical-align:middle;background-image:url("/assets/article/20170518-164637/images/sprite/sprite-no-repeat.svg");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:-223px -139px;width:38px;height:38px"></span></div></div><figcaption class="gmail-caption" style="font-size:0.8125rem;line-height:1.0625rem;font-family:nyt-cheltenham-sh,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;color:rgb(102,102,102);max-width:100%;margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px"><span class="gmail-caption-text">President Trump at the White House Easter egg roll in April.</span> <span class="gmail-credit" style="font-size:0.6875rem;line-height:1rem;display:inline-block;color:rgb(153,153,153)"><span class="gmail-visually-hidden" style="width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden">Credit</span>Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</span></figcaption></figure><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">The analogy is pervasive among his critics: Donald Trump is like a child. Making him the president was like making a 4-year-old the leader of the free world.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">But the analogy is profoundly wrong, and it’s unfair to children. The scientific developmental research of the past 30 years shows that Mr. Trump is utterly unlike a 4-year-old.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds care deeply about the truth. They constantly try to seek out information and to figure out how the world works. Of course, 4-year-olds, as well as adults, occasionally lie. But Mr. Trump doesn’t just lie; he seems not even to care whether his statements are true.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds are insatiably curious. One study found that the average preschooler asks hundreds of questions per day. Just watch a toddler “getting into everything” — endangering his own safety to investigate interesting new objects like knives and toasters. Mr. Trump refuses to read and is bored by anything that doesn’t involve him personally.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" id="gmail-story-continues-1" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds can pay attention. They do have difficulty changing the focus of their attention in response to arbitrary commands. But recent studies show that even babies systematically direct their focus to the events and objects that will teach them the most. They pay special attention to events that contradict what they already believe. Mr. Trump refuses to pay attention to anything that clashes with his preconceptions.</p><a class="gmail-visually-hidden gmail-skip-to-text-link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opinion/sunday/4-year-olds-children-trump-gopnik.html?emc=edit_th_20170521&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=29749741#story-continues-2" style="width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(50,104,145)">Continue reading the main story</a></div></div><div class="gmail-story-interrupter" id="gmail-story-continues-2" style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:16px"><div id="gmail-FlexAd" class="gmail-ad gmail-flex-ad gmail-nocontent gmail-robots-nocontent gmail-ad-loaded" style="width:540px;display:flex;margin:20px 0px 37px 45px;padding-top:12px;padding-bottom:25px"><div class="gmail-accessibility-ad-header gmail-visually-hidden" style="width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden"><p style="margin:0px 0px 1em;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif">Advertisement</p></div><a class="gmail-visually-hidden gmail-skip-to-text-link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opinion/sunday/4-year-olds-children-trump-gopnik.html?emc=edit_th_20170521&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=29749741#story-continues-3" style="width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(50,104,145)">Continue reading the main story</a><div class="gmail-flex-ad-creative"></div><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/29390238/NYT/opinion/sunday_6__container__" style="border:0pt none;display:inline-block;width:540px;height:auto"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-story-body-supplemental" style="display:flex;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-story-body gmail-story-body-2" style="flex-grow: 1;"><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" id="gmail-story-continues-3" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds understand the difference between fantasy and reality. They certainly enjoy pretend play, imagining that the world is full of villains and that they are all-powerful heroes. But studies show that they know they are pretending and understand that their imaginary companions are just that: imaginary. Mr. Trump seems to have no sense of the boundary between his self-aggrandizing fantasies and reality.</p><div class="gmail-newsletter-signup" id="gmail-newsletter-promo" style="border-top:1px solid rgb(226,226,226);padding-top:15px;border-bottom:1px solid rgb(226,226,226);padding-bottom:15px;width:300px;margin:7px 30px 15px 45px;float:left;clear:left"><h2 class="gmail-visually-hidden" id="gmail-newsletter-promo-heading" style="font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.375rem;width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden">Newsletter Sign Up</h2><a class="gmail-visually-hidden gmail-skip-to-text-link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opinion/sunday/4-year-olds-children-trump-gopnik.html?emc=edit_th_20170521&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=29749741#continues-post-newsletter" style="width:1px;height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(50,104,145)">Continue reading the main story</a><h3 class="gmail-headline" style="font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.375rem;font-family:nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding-bottom:2px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter</h3><p class="gmail-summary" style="margin:0px 0px 14px;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;font-fam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dren, we have found that even 1½-year-olds can understand that someone else might want something different from what they want. They understand that someone else might like broccoli, even though they themselves prefer crackers, and they will help that person get what he wants.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" id="gmail-story-continues-4" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">In fact, children as young as 1½ demonstrate both empathy and altruism: They will rush to comfort someone who is hurt, and they will spontaneously go out of their way to help someone. In one study, if 1-year-olds saw a stranger drop a pen and strain to reach for it, they would crawl over obstacles to find the pen and give it to him. Mr. Trump displays neither empathy nor altruism, and his egocentrism is staggering.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" id="gmail-story-continues-5" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds have a strong moral sense. Children as young as 2½ say that hurting another child is always wrong, even if an authority figure were to say otherwise. Babies will avoid a puppet that has been mean to another puppet. Mr. Trump admires authoritarian leaders who have no compunctions about harming their own people.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" id="gmail-story-continues-6" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Four-year-olds are sensitive to social norms and think that they and other people should obey them. In one recent study, seeing a puppet play a game involving particular rules led children to follow the rules themselves and to expect other people to do so. Even 2- and 3-year-olds protested when they saw someone break the rules. Mr. Trump has time and again shown his contempt for norms of behavior in every community he has belonged to.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">Now, all this is not to say that a 4-year-old would make a good chief executive. Being president is certainly a grown-up job. Still, most adults, even most presidents, and certainly the best presidents, manage to retain some of their childlike traits — curiosity, openness to experience, intuitive sensitivity to others.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content" style="margin:0px 0px 1em 45px;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem;font-family:georgia,"times new roman",times,serif;max-width:540px">We’d all be better off if Mr. Trump were more like that.</p><footer class="gmail-story-footer gmail-story-content" style="max-width:540px;margin-right:0px;margin-left:45px;margin-top:24px;clear:both"><div class="gmail-story-meta"><div class="gmail-story-notes"><p style="margin:0px 0px 1em;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;font-family:nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.alisongopnik.com/" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)">Alison Gopnik</a> is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author, most recently, of “The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children.”</p></div></div></footer></div></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>   <div style="height:auto;width:auto">   <div> <div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt"><div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. </span><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">-Greek proverb</span></div><div><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. 
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance 
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not 
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it 
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your 
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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