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...about moral development? One of the great philosophical debates is whether people are born with an innate sense of right and wrong or whether it develops over time. Does your research shed light on that question? Yes, there's quite clearly an innate basis for our moral sentiments. The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one. And we know babies imitate facial expressions...
What does research suggest about the link between unstructured playtime and creativity later in life? There's a little bit of evidence that adults who are novelists or musicians, for example, tend to remember the imaginary friends they had when they were children. It's as if they are staying in touch with those childhood abilities in a way that most of us don't. Successful creative adults seem to combine the wide-ranging exploration and openness we see in children with the focus and discipline we see in adults...
What does all this mean for parents? Does your research have any guidance for raising children? One takeaway is that the billion-dollar industry of quote-unquote educational toys that are supposed to make your baby smarter is a boondoggle. There's no evidence that any of those things make a difference. Children are learning the way that other people's minds work, which is much more important to learn than even letters and numbers. I'm afraid the parenting advice to come out of developmental psychology is very boring: pay attention to your kids and love them...
...while many observers have said that this outpouring of support represented a turning point for civil society in China, new research suggests the state still dominates aid work. Average Chinese, many with no connection to Sichuan, contributed blood, sweat and cash to relief efforts, and for non-governmental organizations toiling in obscurity, the disaster represented an opportunity to raise cash and build support networks in one of China's most populous provinces. But much of the donations collected over the past year ended up being funneled through local governments, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Beijing...
...estimated that as much as 80% of the total contributed to relief efforts was eventually dispersed to government accounts. In some cases local governments required volunteer groups to hand over funds, says Deng Guosheng, an associate professor at Tsinghua's School of Public Policy and Management, who headed the research team. But in general the heavy reliance on the state is an indicator of the underdeveloped state of many NGOs in China. "Most NGOs are incapable and desperately in need of money," says Deng. "Some of them couldn't even afford to travel to the earthquake zone. In order...