Do young Children know Right from Wrong ?

 

 

Research into Tabula Rasa or Hard wired Morality? Do children know right from wrong?

Research conducted at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center contradicts a common belief that children are born as blank slates and learn right and wrong from watching other people. Researchers found that babies as young as three months can actually distinguish good from evil.

The study used puppets to demonstrate good and bad behavior and allowed the children to choose which puppet they wanted to play with afterward. In one example, a puppet struggles to open a box, and another puppet helps it open the case. In the other example, while the puppet struggles with the box, a second puppet comes along and slams the box shut again. More than 80 % of the time, babies selected the good puppet when presented with a choice between the good one and the bad one. Paul Bloom, an author and professor who took part in the study said, “Humans are born with a hard-wired morality, a sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. We are naturally moral beings, but our environment can enhance—or sadly degrade—this innate moral sense.”