Childhood: Growing the Moral Muscle

Do children need religion to grow into ethical, caring adults? Sixty-five percent of Americans think so, but the relationship between religion and morality is a nuanced one. Join Dave as he talks with psychologist Larisa Heiphetz and Unitarian Universalist minister Leonisa Ardizzone to explore how kids’ beliefs about God and participation in rituals – spiritual and secular – can shape their growing sense of right and wrong.

For more on Larisa Heiphetz’s work, click here or check out the Columbia Social and Moral Cognition Lab. Find out more about Leonisa Ardizzone on her website, and the Fourth Universalist Society here.

Ara Norenzayan’s book, “Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict,” is available here.