What abounds more bad people or good people? This is what the experiments say

If we let ourselves be guided by the history books or the news, we will conclude that the human species is evil, that people are bad, or that they are naturally inclined towards self-destruction. Is this negative view realistic? Several authors believe not, and provide evidence to believe in human kindness.

Why do we think people are bad?

As an alternative to the tide of catastrophic books on humanity and its future, in 2018 the essay factuality, in which Hans Rosling provided objective data and statistics on the state of the world. His conclusion was that, with the exception of climate change, our evolution as a species is positive. The constant increase in life expectancy and the decrease in infant mortality are just two of the factors analyzed in this essay, which is full of good news and which maintains that humanity is slowly improving in almost all aspects.

The optimistic nature of this work led Bill Gates to give it as a gift to all American university students who finished their degrees in the year of its publication.

According to Rosling, our pessimistic look has its origin in the distorted vision that comes to us through the news. These are clearly focused on the negative, since they are based on the exploitation of fear. This tilted gaze towards the darkest and most painful part of reality is not something recent. According to what in psychology is called “negative bias”, we tend to give more importance to the unpleasant aspects of any person or event, because our survival depends on it.

A primitive human being who discovered a new exquisitely scented flower could afford to forget its whereabouts, but the cave from which a bear came would remain forever etched in his memory. In it was his life.

A couple of years ago an even more illuminating essay was published, if possible, by the young Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, who had already become known with his Utopia for realists, in which he presented three measures to end the world’s problems. The first chapter of the second book of him, worthy of being humanis quite a declaration of intent:

«There is a radical idea, an idea that has anguished the powerful for centuries. An idea that religions and ideologies reject, that the media avoid, and that history seems determined to ignore. What idea am I talking about? From the idea that most people, deep down, are pretty decent.”

Bregman provides a multitude of evidence to demonstrate that the negative and discouraging vision of our species is based on experiments and cultural products manipulated so that we see it that way.

We have a negative bias for survival, and that is why negative news has an impact and lasts longer than positive news, but there is a way to make happiness last longer: share it with others. A book, article or movie that we have enjoyed is revived every time we share it.

Experiments to know if people are bad or good

The most fascinating example is the contrast to Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s novel that supports Hobbes’ thesis. (17th century) that “man is a wolf to man”. This work shows the extreme cruelty of some children who survive on an island without adult supervision.

Faced with the terrible gaze of Golding, from whose biography it can be deduced that he was alcoholic, depressed and beat his children, Bregman reveals to us an astonishingly analogous situation that really happened in 1960. Its protagonists are six teenagers from Tonga who “borrowed” a boat and, after eight days adrift, ended up shipwrecked on an islet far from the shipping lanes.

There they survived without anyone’s help for fifteen months, until an Australian captain miraculously spotted them and rescued them. He found them not only alive and well, but also that they had cooperated peacefully and amicably all along.

Contrary to what Golding predicted, the boys understood that only if they were united and cared for each other they would survive. In the words of the captain: “When we found them, they had organized a small commune with an orchard, logs emptied to collect water, a gym with some very curious weights, a badminton field, chicken coops and a permanent bonfire.”

When there was a fight, they took each of the contestants to one end of the island. There they spent four hours of reflection, until they understood that they should make peace and remain friends.

The book contains many stories that They show the power of kindness and the rejection of violence. One of the most surprising is the investigation of Colonel Marshall, who tried to understand why in 1943 an American battalion failed to take Makin Atoll, being a force much larger than the Japanese resistance.

After numerous checks and interviews with the troops, he discovered something extraordinary: most of the soldiers had not fired. This same situation was detected in other battlefields, where many of the soldiers did not shoot or aimed in the air, guided by the instinctive refusal to kill another human being.

Where is the thesis of Machiavelli or Hobbes? In contrast, Bregman offers us the vision of Rousseau, who was convinced of the natural goodness of the human being. If someone acts badly it is out of ignorance and, therefore, they must be taught, not punished.

According to Bregman, the worst part of the human being takes command when there is an excessive accumulation of power. Like Hans Rosling, this historian points out what causes the negative view we have of our species:

“Imagine for a moment that a new drug comes out. It’s super addictive, and before long everyone is hooked. Scientists investigate and soon conclude that the drug causes, I quote, ‘misperception of risk, anxiety, lowered mood levels, learned helplessness, contempt and hostility towards others, and desensitization’… That drug is the news.” .

Finally, an anecdote lived with Jostein Gaarder when he was a very popular writer for his workSofia’s world. At the end of an interview I allowed myself a more personal question:

“Mr. Gaarder, do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist?”

“I’ll tell you a secret, friend. I am an optimist because I have discovered that pessimists are lazy.