[Buddha-l] Morals in 6 months old kids

[Richard Hayes]

On May 24, 2010, at 10:14 AM, R B Basham wrote:

> Children do relate in terms of similes which are often mistaken for
> fantasy by judgmental adults; or, children react to subtle cues from
> semi-conscious, 'god-like' adults (of all persuasions). ... . However,
> they learn 99.99% by imitation.

I urge people who are interested in the experiment to listen to the "As It Happens" program where it was discussed and where (as I recall) references were given to the published version of the work under discussion. The set-up of the experiment was more complex than I described, so don't judge the experiment by my truncated description. 

Now that you mention it, R.B., the experiment was conducted after the experimenters lied to the children about what they were doing, so the kids probably just imitated the researchers. But actually, I lied when I wrote that just now; either that, or I'm lying as I write this sentence. (Dan Lusthaus says everything I ever say anywhere is a lie.) See how contagious lying is? Once a 2.5 year-old kid lies to a psychologist in Montreal, the whole damn world is following suit! Lord, please help me, before I imitate again!!

R.P.