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February 14th, 2014
09:36 PM ET
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Baby Brains: Born with bias?

We may think of babies as blank slates, but researchers at Yale University's 'baby lab' have found infants are able to tell the difference between good and bad. They also found sometimes babies choose bad over good. Tonight Anderson looks at a test that finds babies have a bias for those who are most similar to them.
 
The work being done at the Yale 'baby lab' is featured in Paul Bloom's book 'Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil." Anderson discussed these experiments with him.
 
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Baby Brains: Do babies "deal with the devil"?
February 14th, 2014
05:13 PM ET
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Baby Brains: Do babies "deal with the devil"?

Part three of Ac360's special series "Baby Brains: What are they really thinking?" airs tonight at 8/10pm E.T. on CNN. Click here to catch up on parts one and two. You can also find a video quiz to see if you can predict the babies' response, in depth articles, and photo galleries of CNN anchors and reporters when they were babies.

Arber Tasimi is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Yale. His research was highlighted in the "Baby Brains" series.

 
I am often asked why I spend my days performing puppet shows for babies. Along with many others, I think that understanding what we are like before the extensive influences of language, learning, and culture could shed light on our human nature. And, on the basis of research carried out at the Infant Cognition Center at Yale, it seems that a moral sense is deeply rooted in us.
 
Morality is already a fascinating topic on its own, but perhaps even more interesting is the tension it often creates with our other motives and values. On the one hand, we want to be good – we want to be helpful and compassionate. On the other hand, we want to do well – we want to profit and maximize our own gains. These competing desires framed a study I have done in collaboration with my advisor, Karen Wynn, which recently aired on AC360. 
 
Our preliminary question was a simple one: When two characters offer babies different amounts of crackers, do babies take the larger offering? Unsurprisingly, they do. Our next question was a bit more complex: Do babies continue to choose the larger amount when a mean character offers more than a nice one? It is entirely possible that babies are so self-interested that they will ignore the character’s wrongdoing and choose to accept his larger offering. Babies, however, do care, so much that they will often avoid the bad guy, even at a cost. But, it matters how large the cost is – if the mean character’s offering is substantially larger than the nice character’s, babies are willing to “deal with the devil”.
 
What this shows is that adults are not the only ones experiencing moral dilemmas – babies do too. These findings pull back the curtain on many exciting questions. Until we have answered them, I will be spending more time behind the stage. 
 
 
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February 13th, 2014
10:55 PM ET
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Why do babies choose bad over good?

A group of researchers at Yale University's 'baby lab' ran a string of tests that found babies are able to tell the difference between good and bad. But they also found babies can often be coaxed to the bad side. What does it take to do that? Anderson finds out.

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February 12th, 2014
11:42 PM ET
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Can babies tell the difference between good and evil?

Have you ever wondered what a baby is thinking and whether they know the difference between good and bad? Researchers at Yale University have spent nearly a decade studying the minds and behaviors of babies in order to find out if they are really born as blank slates. What they've discovered is eye-opening.

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February 12th, 2014
08:43 PM ET
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"What is your baby thinking?"

This week AC360 is looking into whether babies are born with the ability to tell the difference between good and evil. So we asked viewers to send in photos of their babies, and tell us what their baby is thinking… even if it is just a guess.

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February 12th, 2014
04:01 PM ET
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Tonight on AC360: Baby Brains: What are they really thinking?

It is one of life's biggest questions: are we born knowing the difference between good and evil? A team of researchers at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center (also known as "The Baby Lab") reached a startling conclusion: babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality.
Catch the three part series starting tonight on Anderson Cooper 360° at 8p E.T.

Watch the video quiz above and try to guess how the babies did identifying good and evil.

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February 11th, 2014
08:22 PM ET
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Baby Brains: What are they really thinking?

Anderson traveled to the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University where he watched babies take part in a series of tests aimed at answering the question “Are we born knowing right from wrong?

It is the subject of a three part series airing on AC360 starting Wednesday February 12.

Anderson is digging deeper into the subject in a live Google+ Hangout with CNN Digital Correspondent Kelly Wallace along with Paul Bloom author of "Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil."

Click here to join the conversation February 12 at 1:30 pm.

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Team AC360°