Why the foundations of morality just might be present from birth.
It may be surprising but Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom argues that the fundamentals of morality are inborn. According to Bloom, babies understand the basics: they help others and believe in the equal distribution of resources. They have moral emotions such as empathy.
But early forms of morality are not fully developed. To toddlers, fairness is simply equality. This means that everyone gets the same thing no matter the circumstances. It does not matter how hard one works, whether one has specific needs or if one had previously been cheated of their fair share. Toddlers consistently insist on equal distribution. In fact, when dividing up an odd number of items between two people, young children would rather destroy the final item than let anyone have “more”.
Besides that, acting on our empathetic instincts is not always moral. Empathy (feeling another’s pain) may lead us to help one unfortunate individual even when this comes at the cost of the greater good.
But Bloom is decidedly optimistic about human nature. Infants’ and toddlers’ propensity to act ethically at all—while rudimentary—is already impressive. With critical support from educators and caregivers, we can have confidence that they will soon develop sophisticated moral reasoning skills.
Read more about Bloom’s work here.
Bloom’s book, Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil, is also available from the National Library Board (NLB) Singapore.
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