Babies know right and wrong from life's start
 

Babies are hardwired to know the difference between right and wrong, according to new research by a Yale University professor.

Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, says that children as young as six-months-old are capable of making the distinction.

The research presents a stark challenge to the belief that children are born as ‘blank slates’ whose morality is defined by their parents and experiences.
Moral

Prof Bloom, who led the research by Yale’s Infant Cognition Centre, said: “A growing body of evidence suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life.

“With the help of well designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life.

“Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bones.”

In one experiment babies aged between six months and a year watched a puppet show where a red ball with eyes tried to climb a hill.

During the show a yellow square was trying to help the red ball climb the hill, but a green triangle kept trying to push the red ball back down.

At the end of the puppet show 80 per cent of the babies were found to favour the helpful yellow square.
Preferred

Prof Bloom summed up the findings, saying: “In the end, we found that six- and ten-month-old infants overwhelmingly preferred the helpful individual to the hindering individual”.

He added: “This wasn’t a subtle statistical trend; just about all the babies reached for the good guy.”

The results were confirmed by another two tests.

However, some critics remain suspicious of the findings.
Normal

Dr Nadja Reissland, from Durham University, said: “Everything hinges on who decides what is normal”.

She added: “By saying pushing the ball up the hill is helpful, the researchers are making a moral judgment. The babies might just prefer to see things go up rather than down.”

A number of recent studies have highlighted the importance of discipline for the proper development of children.

Last November a major study concluded that children who receive ‘tough love’– a combination of warmth and discipline – from their parents have the best chance of doing well in life.
Parenting

The study found that parenting style, not economic background, is the most important factor determining a child’s development of positive qualities such as self-control, empathy and determination.

And in September a top psychologist warned that parents who fail to exert authority have bred a “spoilt generation” of children who believe adults must earn their respect.

Dr Aric Sigman’s research showed that many social problems, including teenage pregnancy and anti-social behaviour, are due to a lack of discipline.




http://www.christian.org.uk/news/bab...m-lifes-start/

What if the baby is a Psychopath?

is about as useful as asking what if the baby is a lawyer..

Not really.

really

No this is all Rubbish.

They do not know Wright From Wrong.


Proved this morning on Ch5 Wright Stuff.

If someone is born without a conscience how can they know the difference from right and wrong?

Anyone can design a test to prove any theory they want to get behind and if it involves babies it requires a heck of a lot of extrapolation and interpretation which cannot be definitively proved or disproved.

We have a surplus of "experts" who have to find some justification for their expensive and lengthy training and expensive salaries so they come up with all sorts of "scientific" facts and figures, most of which are pretty useless and do not advance our universal knowledge in the slightest.

i dont agree i think we are all shaped with both nature and nuture not just nature

I very much agree with this - no doubt that the genes a child is born with dictate many personality traits - but environment and role models have an equally important role to play! Definitely a combination of nature and nuture!

I generally agree with these.

well only 80% choose the good guy so............................

maybe they just preferred the colour though? or the shape?

80% of what? lol

80% of the babies choose the good guy so that leaves 20% who choose the bad guy

Yeah I guess lol

This is a load of ****.

I agree, It could mean that most babies prefer the colour yellow over green or that they like squares more than triangles

Well, Niax, OBViously they'd prefer triangles. Why would they not?

I love the way people get paid to just make sh** up. Hey, the country's in a financial downward spriral. Here's £50k a year so you can sit in a room and make sh** up. Let's just pretend we know what babies are thinking. You know, about politics, and rape. Is it not possible that the hardest choice a baby has to make is, hmm, hungry - left or right tit? Wait. I do not know my left from right. Doesn't matter. Why? I want both tits. In my mouth. Right now. WaaAAAaa.

Lol.. anyway yeah this is silly.. I am sure ALL of us have been told off for doing something wrong.. there is no "perfect" baby, child, teenager or adult or OAP out there..

Some children or whatever can take longer than some to learn what is "right or wrong". Depends what your brain is like and the characteristics.. some children need to be told harsher and to be told what is right or wrong numerous and numerous of times until it gets into their heads!!

You can't just give up when times are tough and molly cuddle..