http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifMorality in NYT

Steven Pinker has a great article today in NYT, on the current state of studies of human morality. He makes a convincing case that our morals have evolved out of basic Darwinian pressures, and that they are much more flexible than we would like to believe. Too many good quotes to choose from, but here are two:

The stirrings of morality emerge early in childhood. Toddlers spontaneously offer toys and help to others and try to comfort people they see in distress. And according to the psychologists Elliot Turiel and Judith Smetana, preschoolers have an inkling of the difference between societal conventions and moral principles. Four-year-olds say that it is not O.K. to wear pajamas to school (a convention) and also not O.K. to hit a little girl for no reason (a moral principle). But when asked whether these actions would be O.K. if the teacher allowed them, most of the children said that wearing pajamas would now be fine but that hitting a little girl would still not be.

and,

When psychologists say “most people” they usually mean “most of the two dozen sophomores who filled out a questionnaire for beer money.”

Lesson: Don't Trust Topless Women in Parks

Reason's Hit and Run blog reports on a man in Columbus, Ohio, who was caught in a police sting targeting public indecency. The cops used an undercover (no pun intended) nude female sunbather, who began to flirt with the man, placed her foot on his shoulder, and then asked to see his penis. When the man complied, the police swept down and arrested him. The money quote from Reason:

Garrison plausibly argues that he's a victim of entrapment, since his willingness to unwrap his package at the request of an attractive half-dressed woman does not prove he had a pre-existing inclination to expose himself.