Good Baby?

Nature versus nurture— it’s an age old argument. Is a person’s personality determined by heredity or is it shaped by the environment? Are babies born good or is behavior learned?

On Sunday, November 18, 2012 CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a segment detailing a study that leads researchers to believe children as young as six months old know the difference between good and bad.

Lead by Paul Bloom and Karen Wynn, husband and wife psychologists at Yale University, the study explores a variety of tests created to determine if children could identify a “good” puppet versus a “bad” puppet. The test subjects were babies, six-months of age, of both sexes and varying races.

Out of the multitude of tests, two piqued my curiosity.

1. A puppet attempted to open the lid of a box. A second puppet (good), offered assistance. A third puppet (bad) prevented the first puppet from opening the box. Next, a different researcher, one who didn’t know which puppets had been presented as good or bad, held the good and bad puppets at arm’s length in front of a baby. A majority of the children reached for the good puppet.

Courtesy CBS 60 Minutes

2. A puppet played with a ball. A second puppet came into play and “stole” the ball away. In most cases, the baby would pick the puppet that didn’t “steal” the ball.

The research results seem to indicate that people are born with an innate sense of what is good behavior and what is bad. As a parent, I find this fascinating because I wonder why some aspects of my kids’ personalities are so varied, yet others are similar. Did we raise them that differently or were they just wired that way from birth?

I suppose there are a number of factors that determine a person’s personality. But, I’d like to think we’re all born with our moral compass intact; that we possess a basic sense of right and wrong.

What do you think has the greatest impact – heredity or environment?