• Question: At what age do you believe that children understand that people should be punished who go against society? And why do you think they think this way? Is it due to them being socialised in that way or is it a set of morals each of us are born with?

    Asked by Elizabeth to Ben on 15 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Ben Kenward

      Ben Kenward answered on 15 Jun 2017:


      Morality is a combination of things we are born with and the society we are brought up in. Humans needs to cooperate to survive, and one of the main things morality evolved to achieve was making sure this cooperation works well – if someone is not doing their share of work, or taking too much of the proceeds, for example, people find this immoral. Children start to believe punishment is appropriate at a very young age. In my studies, we have found this in four year olds, but there are other studies that suggest children may endorse punishment when they are much younger.

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