Autism, The Brain, & The Blame Game

Why are psychiatric conditions so common? Taking the example of autism,I will argue that the genes associated with disorders are maintained in the population because they also confer an advantage, by making us more detail oriented or better at dealing with numbers, for example. I will also talk about how infants who have an older brother or sister with autism have helped us understand in which way brain development is different in autism and how to design new interventions that help learning and social interaction, without diminishing talent

When someone who’s being helpful accidentally breaks some cups, adults tend to be forgiving; we base our moral judgments on intentions (in this case, to be helpful). But children will often say that, regardless of intention, the person was very wrong because they broke the cups; children’s judgments seem to be basedon outcomes. In this talk I will present some research that suggests that children’s judgments can be more adult-like, and adults’ more child-like, than we thought. Using stories we use in this research, I will discuss what this tells us about how, and why, we make moral judgments.