Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil

183 Pages·2013·0.99 MB·English

by  Paul Bloom

MORE ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
JUST BABIES
“A wonderful, in-depth look at how our morality develops from infancy
onward, making the strong case for the subtle interplay of genes and
environment in the way we turn out … A must for social science
enthusiasts and parents.”
—DAN ARIELY, James B. Duke Professor of
Psychology and Behavioral Economics, Duke
University; author of Predictably Irrational
“Paul Bloom’s engaging explorations of the moral preferences of infants set
the stage for a book that isn’t really about ‘just babies’ because it goes
deeply into the nature of morality itself, for all of us. This is a book for
everyone who wants to know more about the kind of moral beings we are.”
—PETER SINGER, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics,
Princeton University; author of The Life You Can Save
“Paul Bloom has such an interesting mind, and it’s a rare treat to follow as
he tracks the origins of human morality. With clarity and wit, Bloom shows
that babies have an incredible amount to teach us—and in these masterful
pages, the lessons are full of surprise and delight.”
—EMILY BAZELON, author of Sticks and Stones
“ ‘The Origins of Good and Evil’ is an ambitious subtitle, but this book
earns it. Paul Bloom combines graceful, witty writing with intellectual rigor
to produce a compelling account of how and why people are so wonderful
and so horrible … This book, by fostering self-reflection, is itself a tool of
enlightenment, and can help humanity take another step toward the good.”
—ROBERT WRIGHT, author of The Moral Animal
“Just Babies is exactly the combination of penetrating insight, cutting-edge
science, and elegant prose that millions of readers have come to expect
from one of psychology’s best writers and sharpest minds.”
—DANIEL GILBERT, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology,
Harvard University; author of Stumbling on Happiness
“Paul Bloom is a scientist who knows how to tell a fascinating and
charming story. As a new parent, I found Just Babies not only full of
insights into my son’s developing moral sense but also a great pleasure to
read.”
—JOSHUA FOER, author of Moonwalking with Einstein
“Just Babies is a vital contribution to the scientific study of morality that
fills in a major gap in our understanding of human nature, and as a bonus
it’s a riveting read!”
—MICHAEL SHERMER, publisher of Skeptic
magazine; author of The Science of Good and Evil
“Paul Bloom is one of the best psychologist-writers today. In Just Babies he
combines hard data with charming anecdote and incisive analysis to explore
one of the most profound questions that’s ever confronted mankind: how
we become moral beings. He makes an erudite and impassioned case for the
primacy of deliberation and reason in our lives—a truth given short shrift in
pop psychology.”
—SALLY SATEL, M.D., coauthor of Brainwashed
ALSO BY PAUL BLOOM
How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
Descartes’ Baby
How Pleasure Works
EDITED OR COEDITED BY PAUL BLOOM
Language Acquisition: Core Readings
Language and Space
Language, Logic, and Concepts

Copyright © 2013 by Paul Bloom All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bloom, Paul, 1963–
Just babies : the origins of good and evil /
Paul Bloom.
pages cm
1. Ethics—Psychological aspects. 2. Good and evil.
3. Values. 4. Child development. I. Title.
BJ45.B56 2013
155.4′1825—dc23 2013012697
ISBN: 978-0-307-88684-2
eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-88686-6
Jacket design by Christopher Brand
Jacket photography by Chris Frazer Smith (wristband);
Master file/royalty free (arms)
v3.1
Dedicated to Elaine Reiser and Murray Reiser,
for their love and support
Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to
this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely
relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of
hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality.… The moral
sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given
to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is
given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise,
as may any particular limb of the body.
—THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1787
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Preface
1 THE MORAL LIFE OF BABIES
2 EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
3 FAIRNESS, STATUS, AND PUNISHMENT
4 OTHERS
5 BODIES
6 FAMILY MATTERS
7 HOW TO BE GOOD
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
PREFACE
In 2005, a writer living in Dallas heard that an acquaintance of hers was
suffering from kidney disease. Without a transplant, Sally Satel would soon be
on dialysis, tethered to a machine to filter her blood for three days a week. After
doing some research and talking with her husband, Virginia Postrel flew to
Washington, D.C., and had her right kidney transplanted into Sally’s body.
Kidney transplants typically occur between family members, but Virginia and
Sally were not even close friends. Still, Virginia said that she felt empathy for
Sally’s situation and liked the idea of being able to help in a straightforward
way. Others go even further: they log on to sites such as matchingdonors.com
and arrange to donate their kidneys and other organs to complete strangers.
Some people see this sort of altruism as evidence of a moral code implanted
by God. Among them are prominent scientists like Francis Collins, the head of
the National Institutes of Health, who argues that such acts of selflessness prove
that our moral judgments and moral actions cannot be fully explained by the
forces of biological evolution. They demand a theological explanation.
Along with this transcendent kindness, though, there is appalling cruelty. I
read in the newspaper this morning about a man whose girlfriend broke off their
relationship; he later stalked her and threw acid at her face. I remember, as a
child, first hearing about the Holocaust, of gas chambers and sadistic doctors and
children being turned into soap and lampshades. If our wondrous kindness is
evidence for God, is our capacity for great evil proof of the Devil?
Then there are the more mundane acts of kindness and cruelty. For myself, it’s
the bad things that I remember the most. Some of the choices I have made in the
past still make me squirm. (If this is not true of you, then you are a much better
person than I am—or much worse.) Some were honest mistakes based on what I
thought was right at the time. But in other instances, I knew the right thing to do
but chose to do something else. As Yoda might have put it, Strong is the Power
of the Dark Side. Still, while I admit that I retain both of my kidneys, I have
sacrificed to help others and taken risks for causes that I felt were right. In all of
these regards, I am perfectly typical.
Morality fascinates us. The stories we enjoy the most, whether fictional (as in
novels, television shows, and movies) or real (as in journalism and historical