On this 60 Minutes segment (which also contains a few Rousseau refs for DS enthusiasts, shots of sample babies for those just tryna watch cute vids, and some celeb psych profs Paul Bloom-Karen Wynn power couple stuff), Wynn explained the research that led her to the conclusion that babies as young as three months old actually can tell between right and wrong.
So that’s not scary in and of itself. But it gets offputting with some of the implications regarding the nature of bias. Analyzing infants’ preferences of puppets in different scenarios, Wynn showed that babies display a preference for individuals who harm others unlike them.
“We are built to, at the drop of a hat, create us and them,” says Wynn in the video. “We’re not that moral,” adds Bloom. “we have an initial moral sense that is in some ways really impressive and in some ways really depressing, that we see some of the worst biases in adults reflected in the minds and in the behaviors of infants.”
It gets a little more hopeful as the video turns to a discussion of eliminating bias, but still kinda bleak. Welcome back, guys.