Humans develop self-awareness during the second year of life
Evidence from developmental psychology and mirror self-recognition studies indicates that human self-awareness and self-concept emerge during the second year of life.
The retrieved literature contains multiple studies investigating mirror self-recognition and self-concept emergence (such as papers 5 and 7) which confirm that foundational markers of human self-awareness typically manifest during the second year of life (around 18 months). The claim is well-supported and specific.
L. K. Chinn, Claire F. Noonan, Katarina Patton, J. Lockman. Tactile localization promotes infant self-recognition in the mirror-mark test.. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.028
Paper [5] examines mirror self-recognition as a milestone in self-awareness during human ontogenesis, developing in infancy.
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Grosse Wiesmann C, Rothmaler K, Hasan E, Habdank K, Yang C, Yeung E, Southgate V. The self-reference memory bias is preceded by an other-reference bias in infancy.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61642-z
Paper [7] demonstrates that the emergence of self-concept and self-reference memory bias occurs around 18 months, during the second year of life.
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