Judgement and Morality in babies

Not long ago, a team of researchers watched a 1-year-old boy take justice into his own hands. The boy had just seen a puppet show in which one puppet played with a ball while interacting with two other puppets.

The centre puppet would slide the ball to the puppet on the right, who would pass it back. The centre puppet would slide the ball to the puppet on the left who would run away with it.

Then the two puppets on the ends were brought down from the stage and set before the toddler. Each was placed next to a pile of treats.

At this point, the toddler was asked to take a treat away from one puppet and like most children in this situation, the boy took it from the pile of the “naughty” one.

But this punishment wasn’t enough — he then leaned over and smacked the 'naughty' puppet in the head.

This incident occurred in one of several psychology studies that are being carried out by one of a handful of research teams, around the world, exploring the moral life of babies.

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