Original Sin
July 2, 2007 by Laura | Trackback URI
It is a postmodern truism that people are inherently good, and that external forces overcome that goodness and make them behave badly. Most parents learn early on that kids do not need encouragement to be selfish, self-centered, or to misbehave. Kids are like everyone else - they want what they want when they want it. They simply haven’t learned to mask it - or rationalize it - as well as older people can. But they learn very quickly… Abraham at Desiring God blog linked to this article that describes just how early babies learn to lie.
Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents’ attention.
By the age of two, toddlers could use far more devious techniques, such as bluffing when threatened with a punishment.
Dr Reddy said: “Fake crying is one of the earliest forms of deception to emerge, and infants use it to get attention even though nothing is wrong. You can tell, as they will then pause while they wait to hear if their mother is responding, before crying again.
“It demonstrates they’re clearly able to distinguish that what they are doing will have an effect. This is essentially all adults do when they tell lies, except in adults it becomes more morally loaded.”
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