Culture of Empathy Builder: Paul Bloom

Are We Hard-Wired for Greed or Empathy? @ Think Big
"Paul Bloom: So much of the action in psychology has been a running debate over which view is right. And this concerns morality, both moral judgments of right and wrong, but also moral feelings including compassion. Many people would argue that in that regard, the baby starts off with nothing.

The idea is that children start off immoral, monsters or if not monsters, at least they know not from good and evil. This is not the view which I think is supported by the data. I think there is now more and more data in support of a different view of compassion. Now we know this is true for children. In fact, we know this is true for babies. One way to make a baby cry is to expose it to cries of other babies. There’s sort of contagiousness to the crying. It’s not just crying. We also know that if a baby sees another human in silent pain, it will distress the baby. It seems part of our very nature is to suffer at the suffering of others.

We know that young babies, as they become capable of moving voluntarily will share. They will share food, for instance, with their siblings and with kids that are around. They will sooth. If they see somebody else in pain, even the youngest of toddlers will try to reach out and pat the person. Maybe hand over a toy.

There's some lovely studies finding that slightly older children are able to help others when they see somebody who is unable to fulfill a goal, they'll seek out to come to their aid.

So one elegant demonstration of this comes from a recent set of experiments by the psychologist, Felix Warneken and Michael Tomasello, where they take a toddler, put him or her in a situation where an adult is in some sort of mild distress and see if the toddler will voluntarily help, even without any prompting. And they find that toddlers typically do. There seems to be some sort of impulse in us that's altruistic, that's kind, that's compassionate."

60 minutes
Article: Babies help unlock the origins of morality
Video: Born good? Babies help unlock the origins of morality

Is there a "morality gene"?
Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom tells Lesley Stahl about a population of humans who have less empathy and are more likely to be violent. Can you guess who they are?
Can the baby lab detect psychopaths?
babies show different levels of moral response, but their environments can "nurture compassion" or "slam it shut."
Starting life with a "narrow morality"
Psychology professor Paul Bloom tells Lesley Stahl that babies' "innate morality" is focused on their families and those who are similar to them, but enlightened humans learn to "expand their moral circle.

Professor of Psychology, Yale University

"Paul Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is a past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and a co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. "

Pleasure
pleasure is deep
pleasure is affected by the thoughts about it.
- i.e. expensive wine
- being close to a celebrities
our experiences are shaped by our beliefs

Series of Dialogs and Interviews on BloggingHeads

	Dec 08, 2012 - Paul Bloom & Steven Pinker Paul Bloom (Yale University) and Steven Pinker (Harvard University, The Better Angels of Our Nature) Steven's book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature" How immutable is human nature? Why is America more violent than Europe? 33:00 - Why violence down Empathy - as the world become more cosmopolitan - harder to dehumanize others Expansion of reason - moral arguments become second nature 34:00 - The Mad Max question if social structures collapse then what? 45:00 Against empathy P - you talked about empathy and how it plays a huge role in expansion of the moral circle and the decline of violence. But you’re actually skeptical about empathy and so am I. S - It's not comfortable being against empathy, it's like being against love or motherhood... But empathy can only go so far. Adam Smith example - the limit's of empathy and moral problem. many people die in China, wouldn't affect you much vr, your hand got amputated, you wouldn't get it out of your mind. choose between your finger or 1 million people dying power of reason impartial spectator P - Reason gives a little person in our head judging consequences from an "objective" point of view. S - "the inhabitant of the breast". [ motivation of fear (shame or guilt) of judgment, self judgment ] 42:50 - P - Empathy won't get you there. Another limitation of empathy is it does a moral response at the expense of others. Dan Batson has experiment - organ transplant, move person up on the line to get transplant.. that's wrong. Your being biased towards one person over another. [person is moved up in the line to get an organ transplant because you empathize with the person. However, your not empathizing with all people involved and they are not empathizing with each other.] [Example: Not fighting Global Warming Caused by Empathy] Hard to drive an emotional response for global warming - maybe can talk about penguins. for statistical used - i.e. global warming - empathy fails us. - yes that's true a carbon tax will put a poor guy out of a job I can imagine what it's like to be some poor guy, but I can't imagine what the consequences are in the future. I can't resonate with the future consequences of global warming because they are abstract and statistical. S - It's easier to empathize with the guy next door in coal mine versus the Bangladeshi n the future who's land will be under water. 44:00 - S - [Example: World Wide Corruption Caused by Empathy] World Wide Corruption is being empathic to your friends and relatives We now use reason to give out jobs - a cognitive decision for societies to flourish. [how do we know what flourishing is? ] it leads to more efficiency it means turning off your empathy or forcing people to turn off their empathy. [we created these rules for foster more empathy] 45:00 - P - [Example: Selective Care for only caring about Some Animals caused by empathy] Another case brings us back to animals. Dog elicit empathy but chickens don't We can be brutal to some animals and not cute ones An empathy only morality policy is horribly skewed up [the empathy deficit is the fault of empathy] 45:35 - P - Do you think our work in moral psychology could have normative consequences? We can understand moral decision making, but can our work tell us what moral decisions we should make? what's right and what's wrong? normative consequences - can our work tell us what's right and wrong? not mechanically - but can be relevant like when do you discount quirks of our moral psychology but should not be given moral weight. intuitions sacrificing in moral dilemmas - case of warped disgust an unreliable moral guide P - Since we're against empathy and motherhood, why don't you take a shot at dignity and say what's wrong with that.. dignity an unreliable moral guide 52:00 Steven: To hell with dignity!
	Paul Bloom (Yale University) and Jon Ronson (The Psychopath Test, Lost at Sea, jonronson.com) Want to talk about Empathy and Psychopathy What it's like to be played onscreen by Ewan McGregor Psychopaths and anti-psychopaths 16:00 - Evolution of empathy and compassion - is adaptive I study children empathy helps establish connection to our kin, etc it would be an embarrassment if people who had no empathy did well in the world wouldn't refute it Taking apart the parts of empathy and psychopathy successful people and OM psychopathic society empathy and anxiety seem to be connected Peoples who's empathy is turned up high will do worse in the world. Writers and empathy - getting more empathic as I get older P. Having children made me more empathic and squeamish about violence, more worried about suffering Do psychopaths secretly rule the world? Jon: An anxiety disorder is a sign of moral goodness Searching for simplicity on the other side of complexity Has the Internet made us crazier?
	Mar 29, 2008 — Paul Bloom & Joshua Knobe Is morality hardwired into us? Could we learn truly arbitrary moral rules? The big booming voice inside you that says God exists The mind-body dualism of children Do you need to have a body to get pissed off? The morality of killing gods and robots
	May 25, 2013 — Paul Bloom & Joseph Simmons The crisis in social psychology Joe creates a study producing an obviously false result Paul: I no longer believe studies with sexy findings Explaining the reluctance to replicate studies Joe: Improve psychology by publishing less BREAKING: Psychic powers still not real
	Apr 27, 2013 — Paul Bloom & Barry Schwartz Barry explains the paradox of choice 5:11 Why you should settle for "good enough" 9:23 What Medicare Part D gets wrong about psychology 8:09 Can the market correct for the surplus of choice? 6:16 When rules are not enough 10:00 Barry: Make college admissions into a lottery 9:57
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Are babies moral beings? Researcher explores the nature of tot-sized good and evil By Leanne Italie BY LEANNE ITALIE,
		In "Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil" (Crown), the developmental psychologist and Yale professor takes on the nature of morality and vast research spanning evolutionary biology to philosophy, drawing on everyone from Sigmund Freud to Louis C.K. By Leanne Italie His conclusion? Babies have the capacity for empathy and compassion, possess a limited understanding of justice and have the ability to judge. Yet they navigate not along colour lines but as Us versus Them, usually landing squarely in the Us camp... Bloom: I think we naturally have multiple moral systems, multiple responses. Some of our responses are created by disgust, some by empathy, some by a sense of justice, some by a sense of fairness, some by self-interest. We respond to kin, to our family members in different ways than we respond to strangers in all sorts of ways that don’t fall into any elegant philosophical theory. And I think this is true for babies, too. Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil Contents Preface 1 1 The Moral Life of Babies 7 2 Empathy and Compassion 33 3 Fairness, Status, and Punishment 59 4 Others 101 5 Bodies 131 6 Family Matters 159 7 How to Be Good 187 Acknowledgments 219 Notes 223 Index 265