Does the concept of obligation develop from the inside-out or outside-in?

Abstract

Tomasello proposes that the concept of obligation develops "from the inside-out": emerging first in experiences of shared agency and generalizing outward to shape children's broader understanding. Here I consider that obligation may also develop "from the outside-in," emerging as a domain-specific instantiation of a more general conceptual bias to expect categories to prescribe how their members are supposed to behave.