Are people born with some things already known? Or are we born as an empty sheet and learn from repetitions and experience? This is a debate that has long been argued and no result has been found yet. A team of researchers at Yale University sought the answer to these questions with experiments in a laboratory called the Baby Laboratory. Here is the Baby Laboratory experiment and its amazing results.
Is Wickedness Innate Or Do We Learn It Over Time?
Is knowledge innate? Or is a new baby completely ignorant? Only babies could answer these questions. Yes babies can't talk, but can react to puppets.
The puppet mechanism works like this. There are 3 puppets. One of them tries to open a box. Another puppet tries to help it. The other one prevents it from opening it. This piece of puppet play is shown to babies.
After this play, babies are shown both the helper and the other puppet together. 3/4 of the babies chose the puppet that was trying to help. Unbelievable.
I guess babies aren't as ignorant and oblivious as we think. They can differentiate right from wrong and seem to be able choose between them.
Puppets are at it again. This time, 3 puppets play with a ball. One of the puppets throws the ball to the other one, but the puppet that receives the ball doesn't give it back and runs away.
Then we go back to the opening the box experiment. The puppet who stole the ball tries to open the box. One of the other two puppets helps it and the other one prevents it. In the first experiment, the babies chose the helper. What will happen now?
The majority of the babies pick the one that prevents the box from opening. The puppet that was trying to open the box was the one that also stole the ball. Do babies have a sense for justice?
In another experiment, babies are offered a cracker and cereal. The babies chose one of them. Afterwards, two puppets also choose between a cracker and cereal. Then babies are shown the puppets.
Which one would you say they picked? Of course, the puppet that chose the same thing as them. Babies are starting to scare us. But it doesn't end here.
Now the box experiment merges with the cracker experiment. The puppet that picks the opposite food of the babies try to open the box. A second puppet helps it and a third one prevents it. 87% of the babies choose the one that prevents.
The babies literally wanted to punish the one that wasn't similar to them. Their minds are empty, yet still think the puppet that chooses the opposite food should be punished.
We understand that we are prone to separating people into categories and types. This is a gift of evolution. But can we accept everything in human nature as normal?
Of course we can't. Wickedness is a part of human nature, and so is violence. That's why we have education, and for this sole reason, we should never give up on teaching and learning to shape this violence that we get from evolution.
