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Transcript

Are we born knowing right from wrong or

must we learn right from wrong?

Are We Born

Good or

Evil

Nurture: Socialization

Need for society and parents to intervene and socialize the child to counteract the bias

Generosity Study

  • Young children take less for themselves to deprive others who are seen as a threat.
  • Eight year olds: take and give equal amounts, fair
  • Nine –ten year olds give more to others, generous

Are We Born Good or Evil?

“Noble Savages 2.0”

  • Noble: Born with Moral Code: sense of justice, do what is right and helpful

Good

  • Born with Moral Code: sense of justice, do what is right and helpful
  • Who do we treat in this moral manner?
  • Savages: Born with Bias against “the Other” (Out-group)

Evil

  • Born with Bias
  • Tribal: Us vs. Them (primitive)

In-group vs. Out-group

  • Favor the self and those like us, beware the other
  • Evolutionary: survival
  • Society: intervenes and socializes the child to counteract the bias.

Civilizes the “Savage”

How do we overcome bias and evil?

  • Nurture: socialization

Let’s Ask the Babies

Are we born with an innate sense of right and wrong and morality?

“Noble Savages”

Yale Baby Lab

Puppet Shows: Justice

Puppet Shows: Nice / Helpful vs. Mean / Unhelpful

Puppet Shows: Bias

  • Babies show a preference for puppet with similar taste, puppets who are like them.
  • Five month old Baby reached to indicate a preference for the “nice / helpful” puppet
  • 75% of babies have such a preference
  • Babies witness “ball stealer” (not nice puppet)
  • “Ball stealer” in need
  • Choice of helpful puppet or unhelpful puppet (“slammer”)
  • 81% choose “slammer”

  • Show a preference for puppets who DO NOT HELP those UNLIKE them, “The Other”

OR

  • Want “The Other” to be punished
  • 87%prefer “The Other” puppet to be treated badly
  • “Ball stealer” deserves to be punished
  • Is there a built-in universal moral code of justice (biological nature)?

Are We Born Moral?

  • Are we born with bias?
  • Are we born to hate? Is this our nature?
  • Three month old baby showed a visual preference for the “nice / helpful” puppet.
  • Looked 5 seconds at the “bad” puppet
  • Looked 33 seconds at the “good” puppet

If we are born moral and good, what gives rise to evil?

Are we born as “blank slates” awaiting the environment to teach us?

John Locke

Nature or Nurture?

Are we born good and made evil?

or

Are we born evil and made good?

Nature: Us and Them

  • Readily create “Us and Them”
  • Preference for people like us
  • “In-group” vs. “Out-group”
  • Bias to favor the self and "Beware the Other"
  • Evolutionary perspective: survival

Devil

or

Angel

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