Moral Origins Flashcards
What is theory of mind?
the cognitive ability to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own
egocentrism
the tendency to be overly focused on oneself and to have difficulty understand other people’s perspectives
the cognitive inability to differentiate between one’s own perspective and that of others
- Infants are unable to separate their thoughts/minds from those of other people (difficulty understanding that other people may see or experience the world differently from how they do)
three mountains task
a task where children are asked to look at a model of a landscape marked by hills and mountains and tell how it looks from a perspective different from their own –> most children fail at this
mean monkey task
a test in which someone asked the child which sticker they wanted and to not tell the mean monkey as the mean monkey would take it. However when the mean monkey asked the child, they ended up telling the truth meaning they have no theory of mind
false belief task
a type of task used in theory-of-mind studies, in which the child must infer that another person does not possess knowledge that he or she possesses (e.g. crayon box filled with candles); children failed this test
–> The child learned that there are candles inside crayons box and when Snoopy enters the conversation the child assumes that Snoopy knows the same information as him (that the crayon box is filled with candles)
15 month old false belief task
famous theory of mind task which used a looking-time procedure to demonstrate that 15-month-olds were surprised when they saw another person looked in the right box for where their food had been placed
–> significance: Infants know that others have minds, and that those minds can be different from their own
what is performance vs competence?
Things you might know but unable to show it through an experiment or certain setup (ie. taking an exam at a loud concert)
“Social Evaluation by Preverbal Infants” Reading
findings
Infants also pass judgment about different minds and they know “good” from “bad” and prefer good
→ what things do babies think are “good”?
“The Native Language of Social Cognition” Reading
findings
Native language preference
Do babies accept a toy from the person who sounds like them (speaking in their language) or from the person who doesn’t sound like them?
Results: American infants prefer to take a toy from the American speaker vs French infants prefer to take a toy from the French speaker
→ how does this reflect into adults
Moral Foundation Theory (5 components)
Harm
Fairness: cheating
Group loyalty: burning American flag
Authority: giving a middle finger to
Purity: sexual orientation, masterbating, doing illegal drugs
→ do you care about all 5 categories equally or do you only care about some categories over others?
What are examples of moral diversity?
Sexual orientation
Ethnic background
Ie. different major : probably won’t feel like convincing someone how their major is better vs different views on abortion: probably will feel a bit worse about differing views
Ice cream: no one gets upset about someone else liking a different ice cream flavor
Vs hunting: people with opposing views on the morality of hunting might want to change the other person’s mind
People disagree about what morality even is
Greg Johnson and morality issue
burned the American flag
Supreme court ruling: supreme court ruled in a 5-4 decision that burning the American flag constitutes protected symbolic speech under the 1st Amendment
A lot of people thought flag burning was not even a moral question: the flag is just a piece of cloth
Other people thought it was 100% a moral question: the flag is a a symbol of US nationalism and burning it is a huge sign of disrespect
How do democrats and republicans differ in moral foundation?
Democrats: care more about harm and fairness over the other 3 categories
Republicans: care about all 5 categories equally
what type of dog do you want? example
(Group loyalty vs authority)
“Independent-minded and relates to its owner as a friend and equal” vs “extremely loyal to its home and family, and doesn’t warm up quickly to strangers” → what type of dog you want reflects what categories of the moral foundations you value the most
What is the trolley problem? (emotion vs reason)
train headed down the path, and you have the power to change the path of the train to hit the 1 person instead of the 5 people (most people say it’s okay)
train headed down the path, and you have the power to push 1 person down the bridge and stop the train from hitting the 5 people (most people say it’s not okay)
