The myth that humans are evil by nature falls

The media provide us with a lot of evidence that people are prone to violence or irresponsible behaviour. Every day we are flooded with negative information. There is more of such content, because it interests the audience to a larger extent and, as a result, generates profits. Meanwhile, the results of recent research contradict the thesis about the bad nature of a man. Scientists have found evidence that regardless of culture and place of residence, people are kind and willing to help each other, especially in small matters. 

A great dispute about human nature

Even in antiquity, there was a debate about human nature. Aristotle introduced into philosophy the concept of a “blank slate” (Latin: Tabula rasa), which he believed was the soul of every man being born. Ultimately, it is the experience gained that is supposed to shape the subsequent behaviour of the individual. His reflections gave rise to empiricism, which is opposed by rationalism emphasising the role of the innate qualities of reason in the acquisition of knowledge.

That a man is inherently evil was believed by, among others, Thomas Hobbes. In his vision, people are egoists who constantly fight with each other for limited resources, prestige and fame. For this reason, a particular form of power had to be created that would limit the freedom of individuals to maintain order and peace between them. Jean-Jacques Rousseau in turn wrote about the good embedded in us. According to the philosopher, people have a natural tendency to altruism and loathing towards violence, suffering and destruction.

A new impulse to the debate about human nature was given by Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Based on it, Richard Dawkins proposed the concept of “selfish genes” according to which people are altruistic, especially for their close relatives. Such an attitude provides a better chance of survival of one’s genes, which are also transmitted by people related to us. This theory is complemented by the concept of reciprocated altruism formulated by Robert Trivers. It states that people can help unrelated people if they can count on returning favour in the future.

The debate about human nature affects the polarisation of current social views. In a survey conducted in 2016 just over half of respondents from the United States and the United Kingdom said that people are inherently friendly and cooperative. Sixty percent of the respondents also said that there are more good people in the world than bad ones. The percentage of interviewees who were optimistic about humanity increased with their age. The research was carried out by YouGov centre, an international company dealing, among other things, with market analysis and online surveys. 

We are better than we expected

New research on human nature has been carried out in cities and villages in Australia, Ecuador, Ghana, Laos, Poland, Russia, Great Britain and Italy. The research team was led by Giovanni Rossi, a sociologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The results of their work were published in the journal “Scientific Reports”.

Scientists have found that each of us very often signals the need for help in small matters, for example, in passing an object, giving up one’s seat, etc. In the course of the research, it turned out that in most cases people fulfil similar requests, and if they refuse, they explain the reasons for such behaviour.

Helping others goes beyond social and cultural differences and must therefore be rooted deeper in the human psyche than previously thought. Previous studies have suggested that the reasons leading to human cooperation may have an anthropological and economic background.

What did the research look like?

The researchers analysed a total of 40 hours of recordings from the everyday lives of more than 350 people. They isolated sequences in which one person asked for help from another. In total, they identified more than a thousand similar interactions this way and estimated that they occur on average once every two minutes. It was primarily about situations that did not require much effort, for example, sharing objects or helping with an activity performed.

It turned out that people met similar small requests seven times more often than they rejected them and six times more often than they ignored them. On average, about 10% of requests were rejected and 11% of requests were ignored. The results were similar across all cultures, regardless of whether the interaction occurred between family members or strangers.

When it came to refusing to provide help, in 74% of cases the respondents explained the reasons for such a decision. However, the fulfilment of the request did not require an explanation. This suggests that people refuse help only for an important reason, and they give it unconditionally, without having to explain why they do it.

New research does not end the debate on human nature. In many of us lies selfishness, a tendency to anger and aggression. On the other hand, we have a huge amount of evidence that people are good. Numerous charitable foundations and actions, fundraising, volunteer activities or simple daily acts of kindness show that good is inscribed in our culture and civilisation. The new research goes a step further and gives reasons to believe that good can be biologically conditioned to some extent, and consequently, it is deeply within each of us.

Sources:

Giovanni Rossi, Mark Dingemanse, Simeon Floyd, Julija Baranova, Joe Blythe, Kobin H. Kendrick, Jörg Zinken, N. J. Enfield. „Shared cross-cultural principles underlie human prosocial behavior at the smallest scale”; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30580-5

YouGov.us: https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2015/09/30/world-more-good-people-than-bad

ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230424162911.htm