Human’s unspeakable history of savagery, murder and war – be it the Nazi genocide of six million Jews in World War II or the gang rape and murder of a mentally-challenged woman in India this year – appears to be in substantiation of Xunzi’s notion that human nature is bad. Nonetheless, there is no lack of incidents shedding light on the empathy, selflessness and righteousness of humans in such cases as the engineers on RMS Titanic discharging their duties till the very last moment of their lives or the three men succumbing to massive doses of radiation to save millions of others in Chernobyl. Human nature defined as our intuitive and automatic impulses as opposed to rational reflection based on conscious thoughts, our tendencies towards altruism point to the goodness of human nature, coupled with the external influence contributing to the bad behavior, thus refuting the statement that human nature is bad.
To commence with, the altruistic deeds performed for people in distress serve as corroboration of human nature being good. Despite the contention ventured by believers of the evil nature of human that altruism is disguised self-interest, such a claim is repudiated by innumerable and consistent instances of people helping others in jeopardy. The promptness exhibited in such decisions precludes the materialization of conscious weighing of costs and benefits, which would have otherwise forestalled the assistance rendered in traumatic events like the September 11 attacks. Instead of people trampling over one another for the earliest evacuation from the World Trade Center at others’ expense, what they did was give priority and care to the vulnerable ones – the pregnant and disabled. Such actions carried out by people in mortal danger illuminate the selflessness embedded in human, with no deliberation but instincts involved. Similar propensities for benevolence, even in the absence of reciprocity, are also demonstrated in not just events as catastrophic as the 2011 Japan Tsunami and 2010 Yushu earthquake in China inflicting heavy casualties, but also simple actions ranging from blood donation to giving away money and food to the homeless. The case of young children sheds further light on the disposition of humans for the minimal exposure they have to the outside world, dismissing the argument that such acts of kindness are learnt rather than inborn. Research showed toddlers as young as 18 months who without being prompted offered assistance to an adult seen to be struggling with a task (Warneken & Tomaello, 2006); infants between the ages of six and ten months exhibited preferences for altruistic behavior (Edwards, 2010); and 15-month-old babies had the tendency for sharing with others (McElroy, 2011) - all reflecting children’s innate desire to help even before the indoctrination of morals and the acquisition of the ability to differentiate between what is good or bad. Such instinctual tendencies for altruism manifest in not just adults but also young children suggest that human nature is good.
In light of the inherent selflessness shown regardless of rewards, the occurrences of bad behavior are therefore not a result of internally driven but extrinsic forces. While it may seem ostensibly unthinkable for people to be born good but at the same time engage themselves in nefarious deeds of all sorts – violence as a case in point – the fact that humans can deviate from their good nature and act in an evil manner lacks direct pertinence to the innate character as it is “not a defect in the natural endowment” (Nelson, 2015) as Mencius put it; rather, such deeds are attributed to the surroundings – external influence, which is supported by both Mencius’s analogies drawn in splashing water and Ox Mountain (Nelson, 2015) and the social learning theory advanced by the Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura via the Bobo Doll Experiment. Children aged between three and six were found to be more aggressive after being exposed to more aggression than their counterparts in the non-aggression or control groups, suggesting the ability of children to acquire brutality through observing the acts of another person (Bandura, 1977), falling within the ambit of externality. A study of fifty serial killers who murdered primarily for sexual gratification echoes the significance of external influence for dastardly acts by establishing a strong link between the prevalence of abuses – physical, sexual or psychological – experienced by these killers and their actions (Mitchell & Aamondt, 2005). One of the most infamous killers in human history – Adolf Hitler – is believed to have developed hatred towards Jews only after the unsuccessful attempt of a Jewish doctor to rescue his cancer-struck mother – one of the only two things he loved (Hall, 2009). In fact, a broad consensus has been achieved among both laymen and professionals, including pediatricians and media researchers, about the heightened inclination towards hostility and anti-social behavior in children under external influence, for instance, violent video games and television whose content mostly contains disruptive behavior (Locker, 2014). Hence, the indwelling goodness of human nature can be overwhelmed by the circumstances promoting inhumanity.
In spite of the possibility for humans to involve themselves in behavior considered bestial or amoral, an extensive body of research imputes such badness to the environment rather than an ingrained trait of humans, whose good nature can be affirmed by the unconditional heroism and charity displayed by people in disasters and daily life, and altruism by babies without being taught or induced. Not only does this carry connotations for the government on the critical importance to minimize the negative impact through legislation against media violence, but more importantly it serves as a powerful and lasting reminder that each and every individual is born with the capacity to do good – something we should leverage to distinguish ourselves from beasts. References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Edwards, L. (2010). Psychologists say babies know right from wrong even at six months. Phys.org. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://phys.org/news192693376.html
Hall, A. (2009). Adolf Hitler's hatred of Jews 'stemmed from First World War'. Telegraph. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6852245/Adolf-Hitlers-hatred-of-Jews-stemmed-from-First-World-War.html
Locker, M. (2014). ‘Broad Consensus’ that Media Violence Can Lead to Increased Child Aggression. TIME. Retrieved April 22, 2015 from http://time.com/3478633/media-violence-children-study/
McElroy, M. (2011). Babies show sense of fairness, altruism as early as 15 months. UW Today of University of Washington. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/10/07/babies-show-sense-of-fairness-altruism-as-early-as-15-months/
Mitchell, H. & Aamodt, M. G. (2005). The incidence of child abuse in serial killers. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 20(1), 40-47.
Nelson, E. S. (2015). Week 3 Mengzi & Xunzi [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://lmes2.ust.hk/access/content/group/a7e35757-9b3c-47fb-8f5d-f54cb72abc6d/Lecture%20PPT/Week%203%20-%20Mengzi%20_%20Xunzi.pptx
Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science, 311, 1301-1303.