Radiolab/morality

Michigan Radio has been re-broadcasting old radio segments from WNYC's program RadioLab on Monday nights. I caught the one on morality (origins and development), and while I think the editing/production of RadioLab is a little too snarky for my tastes, there were some interesting points to be made. Specifically: that fMRI studies have shown that there's an area of the brain that mediates those instinctual vs. analytic thoughts (id vs. superego). That there's a cooperative evolutionary basis to "moral" sharing behavior (it improves the survival of the community and therefore the species). That even children as young as 2 can tell the difference between rules that are rules for rule's sake and those that are because of a deeper underlying meaning. Check out the audio archives here.