Determining the Origin of Our Moral Compass

Are we naturally moral or are we taught to be moral? That is the question researchers at Osaka University in Japan are looking to answer. In partnership with Otsuma Women’s University, NTT Communication Science Laboratories and the University of Tokyo, researchers analyzed 8-month-old infants and their ability to shame the wrongdoing or anti-social behavior of a third party. The findings, recently published in Nature Human Behavior, found that infants could possibly “punish” negative third-party actions.