16 - Humans and Morality Flashcards
Where might human culture come from, and why is this hard to discover?
Uknown if human behaviour comes from evolution
Parsimony suggests shared traits are probably ancestral
Earliest pre-agricultural societies were matrilineal and egalitarian
Efficient food led to specialisation, leisure, wealth and urbanization
Rise of class based society coincides with decline in matriarchy and knowledge of reproduction
What is necessary for social organization?
Empathy Learning and rule abiding Reciprocity Peacemaking Humans also have a punishment/reward system and judgement and reasoning
What assumptions do humans make in beaviour of others?
Other individuals have emotions and feelings like we do (theory of mind)
Necessary for our social organization
Only humans clearly able to do this
Social organization revolves around cooperative breeding
Humans only great apes to show this behaviour
Summarise and critique the ideas presented in Mothers and Others
Book by S. Hrdy focussing on extended child rearing
Hunter-gatherer social organization in humans different to great apes
Argues ‘mind-reading’ developed from this extended child rearing
Hard to test, but focus on breeding system may be true
What is it about imitation that makes humans special?
Humans learn to do this
2010 longitudal study of 100 babies
Wide range of acitons
No evidence of imitation before 9 weeks therefore imitation is learned
Undermining claims for apes and mirror neurones
Developmental factors could include an innate component
Underlines problems of these studies
How do we test for an animal theory of mind?
Difficult to test
Related to social existence
Could search for expressions of empathy
Find simplest explanation
How has consolation been seen in chimps?
Low ranking chimp puts arm round loser’s shoulders after severe agression
No apparent involvement of dominance/alliances
Could be empathy
Koski + Sterck (2007) - consolation does not alleviate stress, nor reconcilliation
Who benefits?
Experimental problems?
How does caching behaviour in birds suggest they may have a theory of mind?
Scrub jay - re-cache in private if spotted caching
If no privacy, choose poorly lit areas (Emery and Clayton, 2001)
Bugnyar et al, 2015 - ravens spend less time caching if they can hear the sound of a bird
Describe Hauster’s experiment
2 containers, either grasped or accidentally touched
Chimps and rhesus monkeys showered more interest in containers intentionally touched
Not shown in tamerins - new world monkeys
Chimps and monkeys may just be good at observing hand gestures rather than deliberate behaviour
Elbows touched to containers rather than hands
Chimps and rhesus still got it, therefore do make inferences
How can we test whether children understand the concept of false beliefs?
4 yr olds
Ernie puts ball in red box and leaves
Bert moves ball to blue box
Ernie returns, where should he look for the ball?
Verbal comprehension problem for some children, but can use eye tracking
As young as 18-24 months works
People with severe autism can’t do this - limits
Do apes understand the concept of false beliefs?
Apes look first where agent should behave
Apes might need this in cheat/lie scenarios
May be useful when avoiding sight of dominants
Is it only humans that cooperate and are fair?
Economists, using game theory models, argue humans are self- interested, rational maximisers
Wrong, humans account for the needs of others and show inequality aversion
Capuchins share food - juveniles from adults
In a boxed pull the rope for food cooperation task, monkeys look at each other and more success when they are allowed to see each other (Mendres + de Waal, 2000)
Similarly, in a situation when monkeys press bar, they get food via exchange of a token
High and low value grape and cucumber
Monkeys can see each other
If one monkey only is given a grape for little/no effort, the other throws a tantrum
ie. if conditions unequal, monkeys either don’t give token or refuse reward (Brosnan and de Waal, 2003)
Also occurs in chimps, who accept inequity when they know the others very well
Philosophers and de Waal argue that non-priviledged monkeys are content…yet poor children rebel
Does morality come from teaching?
Could be from social learning, punishment, genes, culture or teaching
Teaching is a unique human ability that requires the theory of mind
No examples of animals teaching
Parent - offspring interactions allow learning
