Started on Nov 19, 2012 by Angela Anderson
Have dialogue about nature vs nurture.... hear views as to whether moral characteristics are learned behaviors or innate inclinations
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I think rather than saying children are born with an innate sense of knowing “right”, I prefer saying they have a sense of knowing “good”.
First of all, in the study, we should define the term “right”. From the article, it seems that the “right” means helpful, positive and being nice. I would argue that prefer other people who shows helpful and positive is an instinct of animal. Animal can tell the goodwill and hostility, and it helps them to survive by staying close to friends and keeping away from enemies. It is their intuition. I think it’s probably the same reason for babies to show preference to a “nice” puppy.
Another reason is, from my personal experience, babies don’t share. Sharing is “right”, but from my knowledge, children will just go and get whatever they want and it’s absolutely a trained knowledge to learn how to share with others.
TogglePosted Nov 26, 2012
Yulu Li - "I think rather than saying children are born with an innate sense of knowing “right”, I prefer..."
Angela Anderson - "Do Babies Know Right From Wrong? ARE BABIES BORN WITH A MORAL COMPASS? Updated Nov 19 2012..."
Angela Anderson - "Have dialogue about nature vs nurture.... hear views as to whether moral characteristics are..."
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Do Babies Know Right From Wrong?
ARE BABIES BORN WITH A MORAL COMPASS?
Updated Nov 19 2012 - 11:15am · Posted Nov 19 2012 - 11:12am by Lisa Horten · 0 Comments
The study utilized a short, simple puppet show featuring a "nice" puppy and a "mean" puppy, then presented babies (as young as 3 months old!) with both stuffed toys to see if they expressed a preference. Even at 3 months, infants were visually drawn to the toy puppy whose actions had been helpful and positive, rather than the one who was portrayed as a bully. By 5 months, babies would actually reach out for the nice puppy. "What seems to be an ignorant and unknowing baby is actually a creature with this alarming sophistication, this subtle knowledge," said Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale who has played a role in many of the Baby Lab studies.
Drawing from your own experience, do you think children are born with an innate sense of knowing right from wrong?
TogglePosted Nov 19, 2012