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Steven Pinker wrote the book "The Blank Slate" stating basically we are all born with a blank slate from birth. John B. Watson believed he could turn any healthy child into whatever he wanted in life. Alfred Adler spoke of the inferiority complex. Abraham Maslow spoke of the hierarchy of needs.
In a world filled with evil, there are many who have done the worst to humanity. They want to prove they were born good. Behind every sick man is a sick mother. Behind every sick woman is an absent father. The concept of parents is a thing of the past when so many abandon their children in this world.
I saw it too, but to me it is in the interpretation. How do the scientists know that they were rewarding the toy for punishing the bad one? What if the babies just like the action of slamming the box shut? It was more exciting and louder.
Good and Bad are subjective terms. The article indicated the babies also exhibit bias and want those that don't conform to their bias punished.
You're right. When watching the babies, while I agreed with the majority of the conclusions made (and wanted more information about some of the conclusions), I didn't necessarily agree (based only on what was shown) that the babies wanted those with whom they had bias towards to be punished.
What I saw was the possibility that they tended towards those like themselves, even if they didn't always agree with all of their behaviors. While I think the study did a great job exploring a topic that is challenging to address for obvious reasons, I would have liked to have seen that possibility explored. Perhaps that will be done in the next phase. It will be interesting to continue to follow this study.
I saw it too, but to me it is in the interpretation. How do the scientists know that they were rewarding the toy for punishing the bad one? What if the babies just like the action of slamming the box shut? It was more exciting and louder.
I had the same thought. In the beginning, when the baby picked the stuffed animal that was helpful vs. not helpful, that bang of the box lid was quite loud, and I thought a possibility was that they disliked the non-helpful stuffed animal because the loud box lid startled the babies.
Even though something like 80% (can't recall the exact number without referencing back) picked the helpful stuffed animal, I would be curious to learn how many of those scenarios the box lid was loud vs. quiet.
While I still have a lot of questions that can't be answered in a tiny TV clip, I would hope a more in-depth look at the study would give those answers and I still think that they are using creative methods to answer a difficult question.
I dunno.
Babies (at least my baby), like dogs, are brilliant at picking up cues from your voice and body language.
It would be hard to prove these tests weren't biased in one way or another.
Extrapolating liking the least threatening person to a 'basis for morality' is also a stretch.
I don't know that I would have done the study. Babies can be swayed by a smile, wide eyes, a tone of voice, and wanting to please. For instance, there have been studies that show babies are attracted to blondes. Why would that be? Is it the light surrounding their heads? I mean how do we know how to interpret behavior that can't be articulated?
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