Why do we tend to judge people less harshly or give them more credit when we learn that they had a tough childhood? A recent study by the University of Missouri has shed light on why our perceptions of people’s behavior are influenced by their early life challenges.

This discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests our judgments, both critical and appreciative, are influenced in a lopsided manner by certain details from an individual’s past experiences.

“In the case of negative or anti-social behavior, we see the actions of people with adverse childhood experiences as less of a reflection of their fundamental moral character, and more as a reflection of the environment they were raised in, so we blame them less for those actions,” the researchers explain. “On the other hand, when someone has experienced adversity in childhood and does something good, we tend to think of that behavior as more reflective or expressive of who the person is deep down, so we praise them more for it.”

Struggling with adversity

The research strongly suggests that when children have to struggle with adversity in their early years, it can act as a “deformative experience” that reshapes their entire moral development.

“Experiences deform people’s behavior in the sense that adverse experiences can pull people away from who they really are on a deeper level by pushing them onto an ‘alternative’ track of anti-sociality that they otherwise wouldn’t be on,” the authors explain.

Building on earlier studies, it was discovered that when people learn that a violent criminal had a difficult childhood, they tend to see them as less responsible for their actions and less deserving of punishment. Similarly, when we find out that someone who did good things as an adult had a tough time during childhood, like facing abuse or neglect, we tend to praise them more.

The recent study aimed to answer a question that hadn’t been fully explored before: Why does this type of information have such a strong impact on how we judge people?

“This has all sorts of implications for people’s social interactions,” the researchers continue. “Moral judgment is tremendously important for how we relate to others as people because they form an essential part of social judgment. The current research is part of a larger project aimed at understanding how moral judgment works. This understanding could potentially reorient people’s thinking in ways that could have positive effects on the everyday practice of blaming and praising.”

Natural development

Indeed, the researchers argue that there is probably a natural path we take during our development, with things like loss and trauma moving us from that path and toward the development of anti-social tendencies in later life.

“People generally learn to behave in morally appropriate ways toward other people, such as not hurting, harming or speaking ill of them,” the researchers conclude. “When people don’t learn these lessons, they are pulled off-track from the natural path of development. People may not be saints or heroes, but most of us aren’t villains either.”