Moral Judgment and Action in Preverbal Infants and Toddlers: Evidence for an Innate Moral Core

Although developmental psychologists traditionally explore morality from a learning and development perspective, some aspects of the human moral sense may be built-in, having evolved to sustain collective action and cooperation as required for successful group living. In this article, I review a rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCurrent directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 186 - 193
Main Author Hamlin, J. Kiley
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2013
Sage Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Babies
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Child development
Cooperation
Developmental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Learning
Morality
Newborn. Infant
Preschool children
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
moral development
infancy
evolution
Human
Prelanguage
Cooperation
Moral attitude
Evolution
Infant
Moral development
Judgment
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Summary:Although developmental psychologists traditionally explore morality from a learning and development perspective, some aspects of the human moral sense may be built-in, having evolved to sustain collective action and cooperation as required for successful group living. In this article, I review a recent body of research with infants and toddlers, demonstrating surprisingly sophisticated and flexible moral behavior and evaluation in a preverbal population whose opportunity for moral learning is limited at best. Although this work itself is in its infancy, it supports theoretical claims that human morality is a core aspect of human nature.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1177/0963721412470687