Are We Born Evil? (According To Psychology)

Are humans inherently good or evil? Are we born altruistic saints who are temporarily corrupted by bad influences, or are we born selfish sinners who need taming by society? The debate over human nature is probably as old as humanity itself. What does psychology say about this question? Here are some studies that shed light on whether humans are inherently good or evil.

Disclaimer: If you can relate to any of these signs, please do not take this feedback as an attack on your character. This video was meant to be a self-improvement guide for those of you who have been feeling a little stuck.

Writer: Brian Cham
Script Editor: Caitlin McColl
Script Manager: Kelly Soong
Animator: Mico Flores
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

References:
Blass, T. (Ed.). (1999). Obedience to authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram paradigm.
Crockett, M. J., Kurth-Nelson, Z., Siegel, J. Z., Dayan, P., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). Harm to others outweighs harm to self in moral decision making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(48), 17320-17325.
Gintis, H. (2000). Strong reciprocity and human sociality. Journal of theoretical biology, 206(2), 169-179.
Mendes, N., Steinbeis, N., Bueno-Guerra, N., Call, J., & Singer, T. (2018). Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(1), 45-51.
Montada, L. (1998). Belief in a just world: A hybrid of justice motive and self-interest?. In Responses to victimizations and belief in a just world (pp. 217-246). Springer, Boston, MA.
Schulz, K., Rudolph, A., Tscharaktschiew, N., & Rudolph, U. (2013). Daniel has fallen into a muddy puddle–Schadenfreude or sympathy?. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 31(4), 363-378.
Ulber, J., Hamann, K., & Tomasello, M. (2015). How 18-and 24-month-old peers divide resources among themselves. Journal of experimental child psychology, 140, 228-244.

[nija]

I’m extremely firm in my opinion that no one is born evil or bad it’s all about the values taught to you and your surroundings.

[seanmcfadden]

"Good" and "Evil" are both human concepts. We're inherently capable of both, but neither by default.

[asriel]

I personally think humans are naturally Pure Neutral and our environment how we are raised and our experiences and brain development shape us into being “Good” or “Evil”

[lonewolfnergiganos]

Now this is a question that really needed to be answered honestly.

[sthefanochavarria]

I think that the only thing that is settled for all humans is learning, we learn how to behave, what is good or bad, but some have learned things that might lead them to one side of the spectrum more than the other. I think that there's no good or bad for humans, just experiences that guide our actions and consecuently, our mind to act in patters that might be considered good or bad.

[collegebro]

As someone who has studied and has multiple degrees in mental health, I firmly believe we humans all have the same inherent values of self-preservation, staying alive amidst our surroundings, and procreating/protection of offspring…how one chooses to enact those desires (our ID-Ego-Superego) is what we have defined as “good or bad.”

So, really, the notion of what is evil or pure is a societal norm rather than a universal concept!

[laurencooper]

"humans are nothing but unpredictable monsters they deserve to suffer"

"hey have you ever realized that maybe humans aren't unpredictable monsters but maybe human nature is so complicated for us to understand we persecute them for their nature?"

"....I never thought about that actually."


"yeah It puts things in to perspective and makes this apocalyptic purgatory we made a lot more pointless."

a conversation with two human hating creatures

[dryliquid]

People both have the capacity to be good and evil in equal amounts. I think the circumstances in which they were raised can have a big effect on how they treat other people

[rohankishibe]

Honestly, I believe humans are born into the perfect balance of good and evil. Enough selfishness to survive, but enough caring to cooperate in a group. Of course, good is still the thing we strive for, as unity is a good quality for a group.

[Psychgo]

Hi everyone! We started a new series. What should we title this series? Comment below!

[ives]

"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy." - G. M Gilbert

[UchaNekome]

Honestly I think humans are inherently selfish. Not evil, or anything like that. Babies are born with the desire to survive and little else. It's through our interactions with others that nurtures our empathy. However if we are raised while given everything we want as if it's a given. We begin to take certain things for granted and empathy gets thrown out the window for self serving ambitions. Entitlement is the worst plague among humans right now. However with understanding and effort we all can be more empathetic.

[rosali]

Milgram's study was mainly meant to study obedience and the effect of authority figures. So yes, while a majority of people went all the way, nearly all of them hesitated when the learner started showing signs of pain at the shocks, and turned to the experiment examiner for confirmation. After Milgram's original study, many people showed severe guilt and distress at the fact that they went that far, even after being debriefed about the study and the fact that no one was actually hurt. When people started replicating the study, they had to lower the highest possible voltage in order to not cause psychological distress in the subjects they were observing.

[WhitneyDahlin]

Babies and young children have to be TAUGHT to not hit, and to share and to not hurt others and to care about others. PROVING humans are born selfish and violent and hateful. Otherwise they wouldn't have to be told to not be evil they just wouldn't be. Toddlers don't have to be taught to be violent or selfish. Anyone who has ever spent time with a toddler knows kids are little monsters and can be very cruel to each other and often physically hurt and hit others when they are angry. Children have to be taught to overcome and control their anger and selfishness. If a child doesn't get this education from their parents and the parents choose to give into whatever their child wants and spoil them the child grows up to become an entitled adult. This is how we get Karen's throwing temper tantrums in public and people treating service workers like they aren't people.

[chedysouilhi]

To be honest i have doubts sometimes about this concept, people always link good and bad to right and wrong you believe you re doing good because it's "right"
on other hand you consider someone evil because you precieve what they re doing as "wrong", however there are some grey instances when someone does bad and reckless things for a noble cause and when it comes to war keep in mind that even the side that declares it will lose a lot too since the soliders have families and people waiting for them, this whole topic is more difficult than it seems, thank you so much for bringing it up

[aeroplato]

I know that I say this a lot, but this video in specific might be one of the most insightful in your channel; Loved it 😁


I also love these questions about humanity in general, whether be about human nature (like this video); morality; consciousness; etc.
I'd love to see more in depth looks about specific parts of humanity/human race as a whole 🤩

[Throughthelurkingglass]

Never judge a single person, on the behavior of groups of people.

[parisbest]

A very sweet, wise, older fellow, told me, 40 yrs. ago, "Basically most people are no damn good." Smart man!

[javedansari-nbpk]

I think we enjoy seeing others hurt because that awares us how someone can hurt us. This must have been very important for our ancestors to survive from an attack.

Or as I say, " See others hurt so you don't get hurt "

But we help other people to have a bond with them so that when time comes they help us out. This must also have been very important for our ancestors to survive

Or as I say, " apes together strong " (Teamwork to survive)

[exe]

As a child, I enjoyed Schadenfreude a lot! The change happened abruptly at the age of 12, when I was watching some "funny accidents show" that was airing. When they showed some clip there I did not think was funny and they played the background laughter, I was disgusted at my former self who might have laughed. I can't say I'm free of Schadenfreude today - but I definitely haven't ever touched anything purposely tailored to that feeling again since then