The Yoga of Leadership by Tarra Mitchell

Author:Tarra Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2017-10-24T00:02:17+00:00

The Baby Lab

In a 2012 60 Minutes episode called “Born Good? Babies Help Unlock the Origins of Morality,” CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed a researcher at the Yale Baby Lab who was studying whether very young babies knew the difference between right and wrong. They used identical dog puppets, differentiated only by different colored shirts, and showed a skit where the puppets behaved in either a nice manner or an unkind manner. The puppets were then offered to the babies to see which one they liked. The vast majority of babies, at only six months of age, chose to hold—in essence liked—the nice puppet. The findings suggested that at the earliest of ages, we have subtle instincts toward right and wrong.

The next set of studies measured preference. Babies were first allowed to choose between two different treats. Then, two different cat puppets also chose between the same treats, and next the babies were asked to pick which cat puppet they wanted. In the majority of instances, the babies chose the cat puppet with the treat preference consistent with their own. The findings suggested that at the earliest of ages, we prefer those who are like us in some small way.

Next, the researchers measured bias by testing whether a baby would want the puppet who chose the opposite treat, the puppet who had a different preference from them, to be treated badly. This time, researchers used the two puppy puppets and the cat puppet that had chosen a different treat from the participating baby. In this skit, one of the two puppy puppets gave the cat a hard time, deliberately being unkind. Then the two puppy puppets were offered to the baby. Eighty-seven percent of the time, the babies chose the puppy puppet that gave the cat puppet a hard time. It seems that our earliest instincts from birth are to have a bias toward those who are similar to us and, even from six months old, we are supportive of unkind treatment toward those different from us. Whether an internal safety mechanism or an ethical flaw, it appears to be the way we are built. We seem to label and divide from the very earliest of ages.

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