[Buddha-l] Morals in 6 months old kids--huh?

[JKirkpatrick]

On May 23, 2010, at 2:55 AM, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> "With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see
glimmers of 
> moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the
first year 
> of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the
bone."
> 
> Why don't we apply these experiments on politicians? Do we fear
the results?
__________________________________

Richard replied:
The most tempting answer is that few politicians have yet reached
the emotional age of one-year-olds. But another answer also
suggests itself. A recent study by a developmental psychologist
at McGill University has shown that children learn to tell lies
at the age of about two years and six months. The claim is that
learning to tell lies is a crucial developmental skill, since it
shows that the child recognizes that there are other minds out
there, and that other minds have beliefs and desires different
from one's own, and that if one is going to get one's way then
one had better find a way to cause others to have the same
desires as oneself. The first strategy that suggests itself is to
tell lies. Children who do not learn to tell lies at the age of
2.5 or so usually have cognitive disabilities of some kind.
__________________________________

JK:
"Children under age 6 often tell tales and have difficulty
distinguishing between reality and fantasy. Telling tall tales is
entirely different from lying. "

I'm wondering how the McGill psychologist decided as between lies
and fantasy.
Toddlers (2-5) often have a rich fantasy life and don't always
discriminate between their imaginations and what we see as
reality.

Joanna