Humans Are Not Naturally Assholes

By seamus -


New studies indicate that humans are not naturally nasty as ancient greek philosophers suggested, but in fact there is biological basis for cooperative behavior.



That's really great because up to this point, the common view was that we (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) developed morality in order to function as a society. In essence, we were the only creatures being high and moral because it gave us some sort of competitive edge, and thus morals were a strictly human feature.
Researcher Frans de Waal countered that, along with most mammalian juveniles, human children have a natural tendency towards cooperation, in order to reproduce and pass on their genes. She bases her conclusions on experiments done on rats and monkeys, where individuals were given the choice of treats or helping others (rats had to help others escape a trap versus eat some chocolate). His research is said to prove that "reciprocity, fairness, empathy and consolation," occur naturally, in the wild.

On a more interesting note, this research also suggests that individuals are biased towards members of their own species they already know. This means that animals are more likely to cooperate with individuals in "their group", which also means animals (and us) are more likely to be moral and compassionate towards family members and friends rather than a more general, global group: "It's experimental for the human species to apply a system [of empathy] intended for [small groups] to the whole world," he admitted.


To me this means that the old assumption that humans are born animals and have morality thrust unto them during their years of educations, is flawed. We have a gene for cooperation, and frankly all this is sort of obvious to anyone witnessing human interactions on a daily basis. You help your friends and family much more readily than complete strangers, especially when it involves some sort of personal sacrifice (giving up a prize etc). Being helpful, being moral, being selfless - they're essentially survival traits that were developed for a better harmonized cooperation between members of our groups, for the greater purpose of passing on our genes.
So humans are nice because our "nice" gene tells us being nice gets us laid. Yet there are plenty of asshole/douchebags out there getting a lot of action.
But hey. At least they have no genetic excuse for being assholes now.

Read about it here.

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