Rebecca Sax at TED Global
One of the most wonderful things about TED is the way that it can introduce you to a completely new idea. Embarrassingly young and brilliant cognitive neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe ran us through how we form moral judgements about other people and how late this capacity matures in our brains. I hadn’t realised before watching this how much our moral judgments depend on the intention rather than the real world consequence. We condemn someone who did no harm in the real world because he had the intention of doing so while excusing someone who did great harm but without intent. Apparently Buddha said “To understand all is to forgive all” but this talk implies the opposite. People also process these thoughts in different ways, putting more or less weight on intentions, which has obvious implications for the criminal justice system and other human institutions which involve judgments. More disturbingly, the region of the brain which deals with these moral judgments can be influenced. Rebecca talks about how the Pentagon calls but she doesn’t answer.
The video includes some delightful footage of kids of different ages reasoning about the beliefs of other people and their intentions. This talk is true TED inspiration and half the audience was in love with Rebecca by the end of it. With good cause I think. Enjoy.
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