domingo, 9 de maio de 2010

O meu bebé é mais bonzinho que o teu

Acabei de ler um artigo escrito por um psicólogo que, em parceria com outros profissionais, realizou um estudo sobre a forma como os bebés pensam e desenvolvem um sentido de moral muito rudimentar mas eficiente.

Através de experiências simples, os investigadores procuraram analisar as reacções dos bebés a diferentes situações (por exemplo, uma marioneta a ser ajudada por uma segunda marioneta e a ser prejudicada por uma terceira), e conseguiram chegar a algumas conclusões sobre como os bebés analisam o mundo e avaliam as acções de outras pessoas.

Dois parágrafos interessantes:


(...) We tested 8-month-olds by first showing them a character who acted as a helper (for instance, helping a puppet trying to open a box) and then presenting a scene in which this helper was the target of a good action by one puppet and a bad action by another puppet. Then we got the babies to choose between these two puppets. That is, they had to choose between a puppet who rewarded a good guy versus a puppet who punished a good guy. Likewise, we showed them a character who acted as a hinderer (for example, keeping a puppet from opening a box) and then had them choose between a puppet who rewarded the bad guy versus one who punished the bad guy.
The results were striking. When the target of the action was itself a good guy, babies preferred the puppet who was nice to it. This alone wasn’t very surprising, given that the other studies found an overall preference among babies for those who act nicely. What was more interesting was what happened when they watched the bad guy being rewarded or punished. Here they chose the punisher. Despite their overall preference for good actors over bad, then, babies are drawn to bad actors when those actors are punishing bad behavior.


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