Have you ever wondered why people tend to feel sorry for movie villains with complicated childhood stories?
A new study shows that it's a pretty common thing we all do - we are softer to people with a hard past.
Here's how it works.
The University of Missouri conducted a study that shows how learning about someone's childhood adversity can affect the way we judge their behavior.
The research revealed that when individuals exhibit negative behaviors, we tend to blame them less if they've had a challenging childhood.
On the other hand, if someone with a history of childhood adversity does something positive, we tend to praise them more.
This study, based on survey responses from 248 participants, suggests that early-life adversity can reshape an individual's moral development, pulling them onto an "alternative" track of anti-social behavior.
These findings build upon earlier research that demonstrated people are less likely to hold violent criminals accountable if they had childhood suffering and more likely to praise individuals who have overcome adversity.
Why it's important
Understanding how childhood experiences influence our moral judgments has implications for our social interactions, potentially reshaping our thinking about blame and praise in everyday relationships with people.
In future studies, researchers plan to explore how gender stereotypes may further affect our judgments based on people's life histories.
