Interesting Psychology/Sociology Articles

[stigmatica]

Social Experience Drives Empathetic, Pro-Social Behavior in Rats

The findings suggest that social experiences, not genetics or kin selection, determine whether an individual will help strangers out of empathy. The importance of social experience extends even to rats of the same strain -- a rat fostered and raised with a strain different than itself will not help strangers of its own kind.
"Pro-social behavior appears to be determined only by social experience," said Inbal Bartal, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study "It takes diverse social interactions during development or adulthood to expand helping behavior to more groups of unfamiliar individuals. Even in humans, studies have shown that exposure to diverse environments reduces social bias and increases pro-social behavior."

[jyng1]

TED talk on 'The moral roots of conservatives and liberals'. http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_ha...oral_mind.html

[Lilith]

TED talk on 'The moral roots of conservatives and liberals'. http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_ha...oral_mind.html

One good talk. I think it's interesting that his conclusion suggests moral humility as the answer to our moral righteousness. The inclusion of Yin and Yang as a sample between the balance of good and evil forces seems a little hanging though. Circular reasoning? Oh well.

I came across a morality test designed after Haidt's 5 Moral Universal Values. If anyone's interested, it's at yourmorals.org.

[ACow]

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/...ivorship-bias/

PS. The ted guy is stretching a bit...to put it mildly.