Nah, the evidence suggests that most children develop empathy before they’re 5 years old. Altruism is an innate trait of many intelligent, social species and we aren’t an exception. The problem is that we live within systems that reward anti-social behavior. The laws are to control the minority. (In theory. They don’t work when the broken people get too much power.)
Or we have laws because a few grifters were so evil and were able to take advantage of the altruism of the majority so badly that we needed rules. The people had to be protected from themselves. If everyone was evil, they would all be so bent on conning each other that it wouldn’t be profitable in the first place. I will say that it seems like a lot more grifters have shown up recently. That might correlate to desperation, lead poisoning, or microplostics though.
They are, though. There’s a reason why we have laws trying to govern the behavior, and why people still do it regardless of the legality of it.
It’s nice to think that we’re an altruistic species, but the evidence is seriously lacking.
Nah, the evidence suggests that most children develop empathy before they’re 5 years old. Altruism is an innate trait of many intelligent, social species and we aren’t an exception. The problem is that we live within systems that reward anti-social behavior. The laws are to control the minority. (In theory. They don’t work when the broken people get too much power.)
Or we have laws because a few grifters were so evil and were able to take advantage of the altruism of the majority so badly that we needed rules. The people had to be protected from themselves. If everyone was evil, they would all be so bent on conning each other that it wouldn’t be profitable in the first place. I will say that it seems like a lot more grifters have shown up recently. That might correlate to desperation, lead poisoning, or microplostics though.
That’s human behavior right there, buddy.