The Origins of Human Morality: Complex Socio-moral Evaluations by Preverbal Infants

摘要

This chapter reviews a body of recent research suggesting that the capacity to identify and evaluate others based on their prosocial and antisocial acts operates within the first year of life, and is sensitive to many of the same factors that constrain adults' social and moral judgments, including the role of mental states and context in distinguishing good and bad behavior. The work is offered as empirical support for claims that human capacities for social and moral evaluation are rooted in evolved, reliably-developing systems for distinguishing friend from foe, required for the long-term functioning of cooperative systems.