Are We Born Moral Creatures?

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Are we born somewhat moral creatures or at least with something we would recognize as norms or are those taught to us? And crucially, how is technology changing the way that we think about right and wrong. We're going to answer all of those questions in the next hour, so I'm glad that you have raised them. But it's a very good point to switch from sort of morality talk to norm talk.

Most of us strive to be good, moral people. When we are doing that striving, what is happening in our brains? Some of our moral inclinations seem pretty automatic and subconscious. Other times we have to sit down and deploy our full cognitive faculties to reason through a tricky moral dilemma. I talk with psychologist Molly Crockett about where our moral intuitions come from, how they can sometimes serve as cover for bad behaviors, and how morality shapes our self-image.

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Molly J. Crockett received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge. She is currently Associate Professor of Psychology and University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.

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