Broadcast: News items

Children as young as eight cringe at the behaviour of TV comedy character David Brent, according to a study by Sussex psychologists.

And it seems that children whose mums had talked to them about emotions started to cringe at an earlier age - or maybe cringed more - than those who hadn't.

Dr Nicola Yuill and Dr Ted Ruffman used clips from 'The Office' to test children's social understanding.

Nicola explains: "Ricky Gervais's character is a typical example of someone who is very insensitive and reads social situations incorrectly. We cringe to watch it because we are embarrassed by his complete lack of social understanding."

From the age of eight, the children in the study were beginning to cringe too, rating scenarios with David Brent's faux pas as more embarrassing than those without and showing a good understanding of what he was doing wrong. By the age of 12 they could be as socially sophisticated as adults 

Their reactions, though, varied for reasons other than age. "Children with better social skills showed different immediate reactions - putting their face in their hands, saying 'oh no!' - when they saw clips like this," says Nicola.

And, according to the study, these social skills were directly influenced by the way that mothers talked to their children when they are young.

The researchers found that children whose mothers often talked to them about people's feelings, beliefs, wants and intentions developed better social understanding than children whose mothers did not include much of this 'mental state talk' in their conversations.

A mum sitting with her child, discussing pictures of people in various social situations, might say, for example: "Why do you think they did that?" or "I think he looks very pleased with himself."

The study also revealed that understanding others is one thing, but behaving well towards them is another. "Having a good social understanding is only part of the picture - it has to be used in socially beneficial ways," says Nicola.

Although its relationship to behaviour is complex, social understanding is an essential skill for interacting with others at work and play. And the findings of this study suggest that children who experience lots of 'mental state talk' in their early years get the best start for developing this skill.

According to Dr Yuill, this has exciting implications for all those involved in bringing up children: "Using mental state talk is not hard. It does not require particularly good language skills or a sophisticated social understanding and it seems eminently teachable."

'The relation between parenting, children's social understanding and language' was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).