• Question: Where does My Idea's about right and wrong come from?

    Asked by issi2001 to Anil, Blanka, Emma, Mike on 4 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Michael Cook

      Michael Cook answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      Lots of different places! A really important source for what we think is right and wrong is the people we grow up around – teachers, our parents, and our friends at school. Everything we experience when we’re young helps us understand the world and decide on what we think is okay.

      Some people used to think that we were born knowing that certain things were right and others were wrong, but this is a less popular belief these days.

    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      I think your personal idea of right and wrong is very much a learnt cultural thing. As Mike says, you find out about what you can and can’t do from parents, teachers, friends, people in the street, neighbours. Some things you are told about and others you learn from trial and error. Crucially, the idea of right and wrong has a very cultural background – whilst it’s not alright to kill people in most cultures, smaller wrongs may be viewed differently in different countries/cultures.

    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      Oooh I’m glad Mike and Blanka have given such good answers because I didn’t know this one!

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