Magazine - Can Babies Tell Right From Wrong? | The New York Times

Babies at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center respond to "naughty" and "nice" puppets.
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Magazine - Can Babies Tell Right From Wrong? - nytimes.com/video
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[@roxiethecockapoo1138]

Imagine one of these people actually go to Yale one day and the teachers are like,"I remember you, you're the one that couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong!"

[@khairulamribinjumaat7566]

Perhaps such a person would be having a different conversation from within a prison, lol.

[@RexoryByzaboo]

The babies in the video are freshmen or sophomores now, so this thing might happen soon haha.

[@diwi5823]

It looks like the moms are holding their breaths like “Please God don’t let my baby choose the evil one 😬” 🤣

[@Mimi19701]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@xrs315]

probably

[@IndianSumaira]

🤣

[@lynnea5731]

🤣🤣

[@foundereren7789]

You know what their baby carring from their ancestors !!

[@孙言-u4q]

I believe that some of the results might not be the actual choices that babies made. As some people said in the comment, they assumed babies choose the character just because they started to reach them. However, in some cases, as we see in the video, the baby also reach his or her hand to the other character after he attempt to grab one of them. Also, the color of the "bad guy" are mostly dark green, blue, gray; the color of the "good guy" are mostly bright orange, yellow.

[@AyanaSioux]

孙言 not in the case of the tigers. The good tiger was gray.

[@floofzykitten5236]

they switch the characters around

[@MelB868]

Babies don't know their colors

[@ellenakavarera1565]

Ayana Sioux Art yeah, and it was light gray. in my opinion, the tiger was eye-catching enough

[@paultardspambot]

Furthermore, the test may not show a sense of "right" versus "wrong" but a potentially "helpful" character versus a "harmful" one. In other words, it could be a test of baby being able to predict who would make a more useful friend, out of personal interest, not morality.

[@Ichangedmyname1221]

In the first test, shouldn't the characters look exactly the same while they do different things? Some of the babies might just prefer the color or shape of the character.

[@YuriLelisRafael]

Deven Lewis to the half of the babies the good one is the triangle and to the other half the good one is the square.

[@Ichangedmyname1221]

lol says the person with the username "pooping"

[@Ichangedmyname1221]

its cool I can dig it

[@hannasteven6275]

Deven Lewis lovely

[@vickisuni3899]

Deven Lewis Vicki

[@smithsparishgirl]

In both examples the toys were whipped away as soon as the child had made "the right" choice even though it looked like in the first sample, the child wanted to also pick up the blue square. It was ten worse in the second test where the cat seems presented more than the other stuffed toy and as soon as she goes towards the cat the other one is whipped completely out of reach.

[@Arkylie]

Yeah, there seems to be need for a double-blind-study sort of thing here. Have the person presenting the toys not know which is the "good" answer, at minimum. Or remove the person entirely, and simply have the tray slide out mechanically.

[@Mastersniper803]

It´s a 2 min video. Also if they always took away the "right choise" why do "only" 80% of the children choose it and not 100%

[@joezingher4770]

this wasn't the whole study. Just an excerpt from it.

[@olivtrees8749]

The child picked the yellow first and therefore preferred the yellow first. That's the point made. So it doesn't matter that it reached for the second one afterwards. They were trying to find out preference. Personally I think the baby just preferred the brighter color over the blander one.

[@littlewammity9896]

and they smiled when the baby chose the right one - we know babies respond to positive attention, so they may have only chosen the good ones because they were led to choose it. babies are a lot more responsive to sound, emotion, and reaction which suggests their choices weren't completely original.

[@the_metamancer]

I love all the scientists in the comment section that know the perfect way to perform this experience.

[@anpa7108]

This could also mean that babies can tell which character they are more likely benefit from by having. So they're looking out for what they benefit the most from.

[@chaoswitch1974]

Precisely . Don't all humans? The trouble comes when they don't gain introspection and look for people to give to them but don't reciprocate.

[@chaoswitch1974]

Reciprocity is learned. Criminals are underdeveloped and it's likely environmental.

[@ArcadianWizard]

"We just like to participate in baby science" lmao

[@magnificentpup2875]

I like participating in baby history. (Enter the babies wearing Troy Roman helmets and swords)

[@reklaw103]

There was just something very unsettling about all of these people right?

[@animatorsrule1063]

It looks fun! Coming from someone that wants to be a future parent.

[@ahhwe-any7434]

Me playing w/ my munchkin all the time.

[@IWillBeSaved]

lol

[@sillyotter9047]

This whole test felt very poorly done.

[@toukendanshiwarrior2846]

No it wasn't

[@melvinjansen2338]

SillyOtter its at Yale... look at Yale nowadays..

[@AyanaSioux]

I find it funny that everyone is judging a sturdy based on a short period of time watching it... Hahaha

[@Lambda_Ovine]

Yeah, you know better.

[@expressrobkill]

it was, the babey reached for the gray square at the end it was pulled away, there is a positive association with picking the right one, we never saw what happened when they picked the wrong one i.e did they say that was wrong, not only that the good one was always done first.

[@seniprime6693]

Did anyone take into consideration that a creature that had spent majority of its existence, being constantly cared for “ or helped” would prefer things or characters that exude helpfulness. Maybe it’s not being able to tell right from wrong/good or bad but vague form of manipulation. I like this thing/person/creature, because it will be useful to me like my parents who cater to my every whim.

[@mari-mari-yasno]

very correct remark

[@lucasdasilva23]

This is actually what morality is in essence. We evaluate as good what is helpful to us. We also consider good what is helpful to others by our empathy.

[@quinnmcbride9564]

Experiment etiquette aside, I feel like it does make some sense for babies to have a sense of right or wrong, or at least helpful vs unhelpful. Babies are tiny, squishy, and can't do much of anything for themselves. It doesn't seem too far fetched for a baby to be able to tell who's going to help them or not. I'm obviously no psychologist, it's just a thought

[@SanaMF]

I think they chose the closer.

[@cuteandred1]

Sana Meshari i think they choose base on the brighter character

[@desertcrown]

or maybe it was their colour of tshirt or furr.

[@rustheart9532]

I'm sure they switch up with one is the good and bad one with different kids to make sure that doesn't happen

[@dothedo3667]

The grey cat isn't brighter than the orange one though

[@slushdog1012]

Latisha Beaugard Well the baby chose the grey tiger over the brown one sooo Also the baby chose the brighter shape ?

[@felixmontes7]

What if they use the bright yellow as the bad guy?

[@Mastersniper803]

wich they have already done

[@felixmontes7]

Lilia Chav i want to make sure they don't grab it just for his color

[@MegaZeta]

They use all the characters for all of the roles; no offense, but they know how to conduct a study

[@KoruGo]

They switch around the colors each trial. Please actually read the study before you comment.

[@Lindathemightywitch]

Um, I think they arleady did! The yellow tiger was the one preventing the other tiger from opening the box! Did you NOT see the video or am I being color blind here?!!!

[@ibexibex]

4:20 - Kitten is a savage

[@lisa585]

0:21 well that's a very morbid placing of legs.

[@klimtkiller]

maybe they just pick the one they saw do something first.

[@tomiekawakami5039]

Yeah, thought the same thing too.

[@dawnstar6727]

Then they would’ve been looking for the circle. Do you really think an infant that young would know which shape did what first or second or third?? Especially if, as they said, they play the same scenario over and over again? They’d lose track of what occurred first and last because it would all blur together. And yet they choose the shape associated with positive emotions.

[@aoiahiru670]

great observation!

[@trishakatz386]

They counterbalance it. Not all babies see the helpful character first.

[@MaddieYchama]

@@dawnstar6727 but if they focus on the first doll that made all the commotion, and noticed that the good toy/doll never left the stage, they may have been eyeing it the whole time

[@وردالجنها]

خلقنا الرحمن علي الفطره السليمه...لكن نحن من يغير ويشوه هذه الفطره الجميله... سبحان الله

[@xel9345]

It has been ten years since this came out....it would be so cool to see the children react to their baby-selves! :)

[@LubnaHaddad-di9mc]

They will react the same way you react to your baby self in videos 😁. Too bad most people didn’t have video cams when I was a baby

[@kamdav1892]

"Which one do you prefer?" *shoves the 'good' puppy character right under the babies' faces* 😅

[@elliethegreat9]

I think the babies are attracted to the rattling sound that the circle makes when it reaches the top of the hill with the help of the triangle, vs no fun sound during the interaction with the square

[@carinasophie5180]

They hold the triangle closer to the baby, and it's a bright eye-catching colour. And the baby still tries to reach for the square right after

[@LemonyoLemons]

She was going to pick the blue square also but you pulled the board away lol

[@captaintimcurry1713]

same with the cat puppets

[@pmm1767]

I think it's also a matter of colour. babies to my knowledge like colorful objects than bland ones so they're chic could be influenced by colour preference. all in all the test is kinda flawed :|

[@Wasteman365]

praanav m very true

[@AyanaSioux]

Not necessarily true. Babies can't see every color until they reach a certain age.

[@szoszk]

You'd need to read the full scientific paper to judge this. This video is obviously just a snippet, maybe they did switch things up, maybe not.

[@Wasteman365]

Ayana Sioux Art also very true, they see shades of grey up until a certain age

[@szoszk]

I googled it, and found a video about this on a different site. They did actually switch things up.

[@sami6998]

The baby would naturally prefer the brighter piece

[@joezingher4770]

They should have switched the pieces from one group of children to another so that 50% got the brighter piece being the nice guy and 50% got the darker piece being the nice guy;

[@thalieem9383]

I said the same thing

[@ayenako7072]

​@@joezingher4770 Read the study, lol. That's exactly what they did. No offence, but they know how to conduct a study.

[@kaziuniek]

There are multiple problems with this experiment, but the biggest are children parents. The child may not know that "going up is positive" or "closing the box is negative", but parent do, and he/she reacts accordingly by holding tighter the child or breathing faster or sweating, etc. These can be very subtle reactions, but human beings, including children, are very good at reading body language. Anyway, experiment should be repeated without parents, and also person who gives the choice of characters should not know which one was bad or good. Of course, as others pointed out in the comments, random combination left/right, bright/dark and different shapes should be implemented as well.

[@huh1279]

This makes me feel good that they know the difference

[@Analyticalinadream]

Even if these babies were making a decisive choice, how many human experiences have they witnessed in the first six months of their lives, that have enabled them to make these choices.

[@pearl9184]

The point of the experiment is to understand whether or not they NEED to undergo experiences inorder to develop a conscience.

[@flameshana9]

If what you're saying is true why do newborns (meaning seconds old) prefer symmetrical faces over less attractive ones? You don't "learn" what is attractive, nor do you "learn" good and bad. You learn what not to do because of the consequences. But a very young child doesn't grasp any real moral concepts. If you asked them "Should this puppet/person die?" they wouldn't have a clue what it means. They don't know anything about any real consequences, thus they aren't "educated" on moral matters. Their responses are instinct until they learn to make decisions based on understood consequences.

[@ahhwe-any7434]

I obviously don't think my wiwhoa 1 thinks that in depth. But I do wonder how far along she's come. I only know what she sees as comfort & what doesn't.

[@lauraatthecorepoint]

There seem to be lots of explanations available. They might be selecting the puppet closest to their dominant hand, based on bright color, or because those characters are more helpful and therefore a better evolutionary choice?

[@SecretNo12]

In the trials I hope they changed around which character played which role, so the results are not confounded with simply preference for appearance

[@vanessad.2625]

This got a like because those are some sweet angels right there, but I'm not sure this experiment proved anything except that babies like bright colors.

[@archilzhvania6242]

Do they change the roles of the characters? I mean, it could be the case that the babies prefer the shape and colour that coincide with the helpful toy.

[@AyratHungryStudent]

I think they should put the "evil" babies under surveillance, just in case)

[@rogersmith3295]

"Which one do you choose" *while simultaneously lowering bad guy. They wouldn't let the infant choose the bad guy even if it was the character they wanted.

[@stefxicilicitici6592]

Well I mean it is the brightest color

[@boingyboop4960]

I think the babies were likely able to relate to the characters that were trying to achieve a goal, like the red circle who was trying to climb the hill, or the toy playing with the ball, or the character trying to open the box, because babies try to do things and learn as they go, and it would be satisfying to see the character achieve the goal, so they become more fond of the characters who help these characters reach their goals and not the characters that make it harder, because they want to learn.

[@haoguo2056]

We assume that the baby picks the good guy because he is good, without truly knowing his/her true intensions.

[@hug-a-bull5717]

Makes you wonder though... what is the “bad guy” was actually the good guy. The blue square was preventing the circle from climbing the mountain which was actually a volcano and if the circle made it to the top it would have plummeted to its death.

[@balajikarthi9040]

The attention that babies give and the mind control over the vision to choose between, my God! Why this video was shown late in my recommendations!!

[@fbession]

Admitting that the video is but a summary of the many different variations done in terms of colors, movement, shapes etc.. to reach a significant statistic result (after all, let's imagine that Psychologists in Yale know a bit about what they are doing) why is that interpreted in terms of "right" and wrong" and not related to "cooperation" or not? after all, Sapiens are social primates, it wouldn't be surprising to find out some tendencies in favor of social interactions. it seems to me that the notion of "right and wrong" is too vague at this stage to venture in... however i am mostly impress by the fact that babies seems to get a pretty clear notion of "The Other" Vs "Self" clearly far from a psychotic structure where distinction between self and the world is still but a vague concept... I'm going to look up the exp, to check the age of the babies. but I didn't see any teeth so I figured they are still in the oral stage : /?

[@solarpanelsarecool]

I was thinking that it's in a baby's survival interests to be able to distinguish between a person who's likely to help them, and one who might harm them.

[@jessielynn]

Help=right; Harm= wrong

[@Duke00x]

Have you really looked Yale latey? This is the same school that had one campus that had students yelling at faculty "'It's not about creating an intellectual space, It's about creating a home" (I cut out some of the middle of the quote. But it doesn't change the meaning of it any) and there are many more gems like that. Sure this was not the science campus. But still this is the level of what the "quality" of students they are letting in now a days. And this has been going on for over a decade now. This is getting to be the level of most colleges except in the sciences (and then only in the hardest sciences like physics and math and engineering) and even they are starting down the same path and have been for years now.

[@matta.631]

or maybe the triangle character is easily accessible

[@reneesantiago6496]

She offered the good puppet first and shook it in babys face so of course baby will choose that one.

[@TheSassi14]

This is why you should question sentences that start with studies say. Sufficient participants? Other influence? Correlation or actually causation?

[@mel.atonin]

I think the reactions have an impact as well. In the first test with the shapes, you can see that when the triangle helps the circle, it’s clear that the circle has a positive reaction (the shaking) whereas when it is pushed down by the square, it has very little to no reaction, therefore a “negative” reaction. That’s something I noticed! If I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me!

[@spulwasser]

I first thought red circle was bouncing because it was scared of the height yellow triangle unvoluntarily pushed it to😅

[@derpster4113]

Lol she was about to choose the evil guy lol but she moved the tray before the baby could!

[@shirleyjhaney1041]

The puppeteers do a nice job! Very expressive!

[@umeshshridar5487]

May be results will be changed if u changed the color... As yellow is more appealing to babies

[@MrAtlfan21]

All these commenters are acting like they know more about psychology than Yale

[@luutsii]

MrAtlfan21 you know how many times these guys were proven wrong throughout history ? Use your own brains

[@molly-gh4we]

Treestump & Thunderarch How can you judge when we only saw a tiny bit of the experiment? We don’t know how often they switched it up or how many different scenarios they offered. If everyone else thought about the color and handedness, they did too.

[@withlessAsbestos]

They can tell which one won’t smack them.

[@أمةالله-خ6ض3ق]

❤💚Simply because the babies have a clean heart full of love😍✨💫

[@arentol99]

The Mencius vs Xunzi debate. The question of human morality, or lack thereof, has been going on for thousands of years.

[@jabbersart6218]

man as a baby i think i'd just burst out crying seeing a bunch of stuffed animals come to life XD

[@nicolenikky8874]

The last one...the baby just smiled...was still choosing...and the lady immediatly took the other toy...🙄

[@shreyamundada4364]

Good research....we really need to teach children to hold on the best possible ideals... they already are intelligent

[@ClearlySoClear]

Right and wrong are concepts they might not know of, they might connect to 'suffering' and 'pleasure at a basic pre-concept level.

[@TheHealthConscounist]

I hope they changed the roles of the characters to avoid unknown variables, like instead of having always the square as the bad character, make it the triangle, and so on when doing the experiment with different babies

[@mmartens3]

This is an interesting study. Thanks for sharing. The results are fascinating. The babies are so young but they clearly knew who the good guys were!

[@Zibonnn]

There could be 100 other reasons why babies chose those characters. I don't know if the researchers considered those factors, I want to believe they did. But if they didn't, we cannot conclusively say the results are accurate.

[@TomO-nx1bd]

Show them two presidential candidates. The babies would start crying in frustration.

[@alonbinyamin]

She was totally about to choose the square after touching the triangle

[@rachelsour97]

How do parents find these studies to participate in? I would love to know for the future but I want to be familiarize in order to know what helpful but still safe for both parent and child

[@melblack7412]

This makes me think of Romans 2:15, "Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them."

[@RavenclawFtW3295]

So they can tell the difference between friendly and hostile.

[@lizagates6252]

We now understand so much more about association and emotional pairing, particularly as it relates to race, I'd love to see this paired with a neuroscience study

[@halmrkcrdz2494]

2010: Can Babies Tell Right From Wrong? 2021: When Can My Baby Tell Me What Gender It Is?

[@toppatoppa5236]

Surely the shapes and the colours of the puppets would make a difference

[@SavedError]

They should have done the test a few more times but switch up the roles of the puppets. Babies may prefered the brighter colors or triangle over square

[@fuzzara_]

Ah yes, baby videos for quarantine

[@awesomemanb3267]

Oh come on. Babies are about as self aware as a potato.

[@BlueBirdBaby]

The color of the triangle is bright yellow. That will draw attention to it first.

[@2067792332977602]

Great now the kid is gonna hate squares when he grows up!

[@florence.5088]

Gotta love the pseudoscience that is psychology, it never ceases to amaze me. Babies picking toys to see if humans are inherently good, that's a foolproof scientific method lol

[@olyabutorina6869]

Every baby knows what love is. Sadly not every grown-up person knows that :/

[@magmartin9726]

Yah, right...! "Infants come into the world with "... You don't need your parents children ... you are just fine without any parental influence . Are you joking?!

[@kevink3688]

So the study shows that most babies prefer the bright yellow triangle over the blue square.

[@akipapaja1057]

they would choice both if they did get the time and if they let them. The first girl wanted get the second one as well but the woman pulled it away. The girl is right hand for sure, that's why she reaching first with the right hand then wanted the second to reach as well.

[@UnicornGamerGirl]

They should have done the first test again on the same baby but this time switch the color to see whether it was chosen because of the color or because of what the test is actually about

[@Mich6961]

With the second one especially could the baby just be associating the characters with 'who keeps playing the game/who is keeping me entertained'? So they disregard any object that indicates the end of a stimulating activity?

[@michellemurphy4148]

Watching the puppet show with no sound (like the baby not being able to understand speech) I wouldn't be able to tell that these characters are being bad because one bumps into the other

[@e.l.2734]

Isn't there a study showing that kids as young as 2 y.o. are able to tell a moral imperative from a circumstancial one?

[@shanechandler1018]

If you noticed the child also reached for the square ,at that age children see all as equal . Watch again and see how quickly the tray was removed , this falsified the validity of the test . The child is influenced and will probably seek therapy later in life .

[@lnicole2504]

It could be also because the good guy is in a bright, fun, attractive color which is more interesting to the baby.

[@antoniaowns]

All the bad characters were the darker of the two. I'm curious what the outcome would be if there was more of a variation.

[@blackngoldcuttlefish3390]

not the orange a-hole cat lol

[@renitatellis7772]

Babies do differentiate between right and wrong . I cannot put it in words but as a mother of two i have seen my babies differentiate right and wrong. Am sure most of the mothers will agree

[@KatzRool]

those puppet shows are really entertaining lol

[@iluminiele]

Right, so one of them is super bright yellow and another one is gray. Children choose the yellow one. Iiiiiinteresting.

[@multifandomtrashygrassyehe2715]

If this was the case then it would make so much more sense as to why psychopaths and sociopaths are the way they are, because their genes were different to maybe a normal human beings’s

[@mzmissy9591]

Oh babies.. So cute all of u

[@mekdeszerfu1483]

i dont think they are born with it but they learns each and every right and wrong since in his moms belly

[@ga35am]

This test seems to be very silly.

[@Head0Ache]

1.3k dislike is the 20% infant.

[@franziskani]

But the puppets are offered by adults that know who is the good and the bad guy. Especially at 4:45 that seemed to be a bit "suggestive". And the parents also know. For a real double blind study the parents would need to wear a blindfold (they have to be present so the child feels safe). And someone that does not know how the good or bad parent is has to offer it.

[@shirleyjhaney1041]

Because I’m a parent I realize often how often parenting conventional wisdom is actually right . Although people like to bemoan the “I’ve become my parents!” thing I think that’s largely fine and often better than whatever the latest parenting trend is. So I don’t think it’s embarrassing to teach like all parents do that it’s nice to be a helper.

[@Dclxvi6x3]

Babies and animals are way smarter than we think 🤔

[@isoney]

To all the comments picking holes: this is a five minute clip demonstrating findings. It’s not the experiment. You want control groups and variations in 5 minutes? Come on. Go read the papers if you feel that somehow Yale doesn’t understand how to put together a proper study.

[@ludvigjohansson1982]

It would be interesting to add more control to the experiment. Let's give the children the opportunity to choose a puppet, but place one puppet further away on purpose. My hypothesis is that the closest puppet will be chosen, regardless if its good or bad. I think placement could be a more important contingent then the puppets "kindness". In my version of the experiment, it would truly be remarkable if children chose the good puppet despite it being further away. However, what this means for "morals" i don't know since we can't know the child's reasoning, we can only see the actual choice.

[@kam5923]

I couldn’t even remember the colors of the good and bad characters so idk how the babies did

[@shre9]

The baby would obviously choose the brighter color ain't it?

[@joseyrupert6316]

I wouldn’t remember what color/shape was helpful vs. unhelpful lol 😅

[@ri3167]

In the second test she picks the bad one and they just go over it

[@rararaspberry691]

This can't be Yale's testing standard fr.