Oliver Goodenough
Abstract:
This talk examines how adults think about punishment of juveniles in light the work of Baird (2009), which suggests that adolescents need some space in which to make mistakes, a need deriving not only from a lack of brain development, but also from a lack of experience necessary to push that development along, and the work of Cushman et al. which explores the evolutionary and neural explanations for punishment as a teaching tool. It will suggest that the traditional, if conflicted, allowance of some license to youth is a sensible strategy for dealing with juvenile transgressions, and will describe possible experiments to better delineate adult attitudes and juvenile responses.
