April 14: Audun Dahl, "Early Moral Development in Social Interactions"

Early Moral Development in Social Interactions

Morality is about how we treat other people, and it develops, to a large extent, through social interactions. In its fully developed form, morality involves a concern for the well-being of others and an ability to coordinate moral and non-moral concerns. Although infants appear sensitive to some moral norms by their first birthday, they do not reliably act out of concern for the well-being of others. For instance, they harm others without provocation and they help others at substantially lower rates than older children, if at all. Over the course of the second year of life, this changes dramatically. In this talk, Audun will discuss evidence for how distinct forms of social interactions in the second year contribute to two fundamental aspects of moral development: the aversion to interpersonal harm and the tendency to help others. His research combines naturalistic and experimental methods to show that (1) caregivers are generally more insistent and more angry when intervening on infants' moral (harmful) transgressions than on other transgressions, (2) caregivers facilitate infants' helping behavior at ages earlier than often assumed, and (3) infants make use of these social signals in deciding what to do (help) and not to do (harm).

This talk will be held in 3105 Tolman Hall, 12:00-1:30pm