We make thousands of decisions a day, large and small. Some decisions are harder than others, especially when a person has to choose between right and wrong. A person in that situation may consider many things: rules and laws, possible punishments for breaking the laws, what other people will think of them, and even what they will think of themselves. This kind of thinking — often called ethical thinking — is difficult, and different people can come to different conclusions about what behavior is right. The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg wanted to study how people reach these conclusions. He wanted to know: how do we tell right from wrong?
To answer this question, Kohlberg performed research by interviewing a group of boys about their moral decision-making. He first interviewed them when they were between ages 10 and 16, and then interviewed each boy again several times over the next 12 to 20 years. Kohlberg developed several scenarios — or made-up situations — about a character who has a difficult moral decision to make.

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