Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://aeon.co/ideas/the-bad-news-on-hu...psychology

INTRO: It’s a question that’s reverberated through the ages – are humans, though imperfect, essentially kind, sensible, good-natured creatures? Or are we, deep down, wired to be bad, blinkered, idle, vain, vengeful and selfish? There are no easy answers, and there’s clearly a lot of variation between individuals, but here we shine some evidence-based light on the matter through 10 dispiriting findings that reveal the darker and less impressive aspects of human nature...

WHAT'S COVERED:

We view minorities and the vulnerable as less than human;
We experience Schadenfreude (pleasure at another person’s distress) by the age of four;
We believe in karma – assuming that the downtrodden of the world deserve their fate;
We are blinkered and dogmatic;
We would rather electrocute ourselves than spend time in our own thoughts;
We are vain and overconfident;
We are moral hypocrites;
We are all potential trolls;
We favour ineffective leaders with psychopathic traits;
We are sexually attracted to people with dark personality traits.

MORE (details): https://aeon.co/ideas/the-bad-news-on-hu...psychology

Christians and conservatives have long known that man is not essentially good. Seems to take modern science an awfully long time to catch up with 2,000 year old wisdom.

The good news is that due to evolution we are programmed to be essentially good and altruistic and respectful of others. The whole Christian thing about sin and humanity being essentially bad and unable to improve itself is a lie meant to drum up church attendance. Sin is a myth. There is no inborn tendency to do bad things.

Wow, someone missed the entire point of the OP article.

Who said people can't improve? O_o
If evolution already made them "essentially good and altruistic and respectful of others", there would be little to improve, whereas the flawed nature of man is what necessitates the personal responsibility to do better. The former foolishly presumes virtue, contrary to reality, while only the latter asserts that personal improvement is a necessary feature of life.

And talking about "no inborn tendency to do bad things" obviously demonstrates you've never had, nor spent much time around, children.

We know a female who expresses the opinion that children are born with the devil in them and it has to be slapped out of them. I have to say both her sons grew up to be very pleasant people though whether because or in spite of the slapping is not known.