Or, better yet, why is it so easy?
MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe is trying to reconcile these two questions. She is studying the part of our brain called the right temporoprietal junction that is almost entirely specialized to think about and judge other people's thoughts.
Between age 3 and 5 children learn that people can have false beliefs, but only by age 7 have they developed the ability to apply moral judgments to other people's thoughts.
It takes a while for the TPJ to develop, but by adulthood it lights up brightly in brain scanners when moral judgments run hot.But Saxe's lab, using a machine called a transcranial magnetic stimulator, which applies an electromagnetic pulse to a targeted point in the brain, can temporarily disable the function in the TPJ and change what people think about someone else's actions.
Think of the possibilities for trial lawyers, spymasters and advertisers. The Pentagon has called Saxe, but she is not taking its calls. (more)
