Are people generally good?

I'm such a good lad I am.

I’m actually more measured online than I am in real life. I loathe trolls and people who hide behind anonymity to pour vitriol, seemingly to get kicks. If I have something less positive to say to somebody for some reason I much prefer to do it face to face.

I think most people have a lot of innate decency, but with potential for bad deeds in the wrong circumstances. Most people are contradictions within themselves, I know I am definitely a hypocrite and I can annoy myself at times; but that’s my conscience trying to keep
Myself in order. There are those seemingly with no conscience at all and they are the sociopaths, probably making up almost 10% of society. They are the ones causing most of the problems of the world and they rarely struggle within themselves or lose sleep over anything that might affect anybody but themselves. At the other end of the spectrum there are the genuinely angelic people who wouldn’t harm a fly, or try their utmost not to in spite of personal obstacles. I seem to know few enough of those, but I have a small number of relations, friends, and acquaintances in this category, but, like the sociopaths, I still believe they make up about 10%. They are rarely enough to be seen in leadership, but if they can nudge their way up there they make the Gandhis of the world.

Farawayhome wrote: »

What are your views? Are people generally good with the exception being the horrible people? Or is it the other way round?

I think the majority of people by far are "good" but I think they operate in a society that has created a system of incentives that can work against that goodness too.

Honesty is one good example of this. We do not celebrate honesty as much as we could - and quite often we actively suffer when we are being honest rather than hiding things or putting the blame elsewhere and so on.

Farawayhome wrote: »

I like to see the best in people but as you go through life, you find more and more people who are just not that nice. From the openly rotten people to the behind your back types. You see bullies, tales of disturbing boyfriends or girlfriends.

One problem I think is that it is not a linear scale. It is easier to seem bad than good. One takes more effort than the other. So this skews our perspective a little. We underestimate the good and over estimate the bad.

Worse I think we do not just estimate them poorly but _notice_ them differently. We are more inclined to notice the bad stuff although a lot rarer stay with us more and longer. How often do you notice a driver and think "wow he was nice or great to do that" compared to how often we notice a driver who seems to do an a-hole move?

And finally I think "seems" is important there. We can often see something happen we deem as bad or mean or horrible or inconsiderate and assume the worst of the person doing it. But we do not know their reality. Often they did it for reasons that would entirely justify it if we knew them. But we do not see any of that and in fact in the same situation we would likely have done the same thing.

Farawayhome wrote: »

You also meet some really lovely people. Generous and kind hearted. Some people do really amazing things to help people.

I try to be one of those people myself. Not that I often succeed. But one of the things I did recently was start working with some local youths who were hanging out basically being the worst kids you can imagine and even actively terrorizing little old ladies.

In an _amazingly_ short space of time I turned them into the loveliest group of lads you could want to meet. I have written about them a couple of times on boards.

Which feeds this feeling in my that not only are people generally good - those that seem not to be are not _actively_ bad. They are just a few short steps down the wrong path and can be rescued relatively easily.

Farawayhome wrote: »

Then you see people on social media and anonymous forums such as this and the amount of people who post horrible things is staggering. Why is this?

I think there has been no end of studies showing that a huge part of this is not that they are actively bad people but that the effect of "depersonalisation" on our species is huge. Particularly online. There have been studies on this in scientific contexts - social contexts - and even entertainment contexts.

For example of the third of those - Derren Brown a minor hero of mine did a game show where the audience was made vote on the consequences that would be visited on a seemingly innocent member of the public. The more depersonalised it became the more horrific the audience got.

But this has been born out in science studies too. It is not just that people on here are anonymous so they feel they can do more evil - but the people they are doing it _to_ are also faceless anonymous incarnations and that depersonalises them and people feel more justified and less hesitant to simply be cruel to them.

Not because they are actively cruel as such - but just because our species is not evolved to process individuals in such a removed manner.

Most people are good, but even good people can do bad things just like bad people can still do good things. People aren't just good or bad; they can be both on the same day.

leahyl wrote: »

I some that are calculating and only care about “mé fein”.

And some of those loose their intellect while only caring about mé Fein.

Like the Aul fella in another Irish city, not Dublin who wanted me to give him 20 euro from a the ATM with my card.


I agreed. He then asked me to make it 40.


So he got nothing