 Hey friends, welcome back to another video. Have you ever wondered, 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. Let's begin. We hurt others when ordered to, but we'd rather hurt ourselves instead. Imagine this. An experimenter tells you that you're a teacher, giving a memory test to another participant who is a learner. Every time the learner gets an answer wrong, you have to give them an electric shock of increasing voltage, even up to a fatal level. How much would you hurt the other person? Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram tried this experiment to test obedience to authority, where the learner was really an actor pretending to scream in pain and plead for mercy. He was shocked, pun intended, to find that 65% of participants went all the way to a fatal voltage when ordered to. Milgram's classic study has been often cited as proof that humans are quite ready to hurt others. However, Milgram's study has been questioned by psychologists who have done their own investigations and found other results. In a 2014 study by University College London, participants got cash rewards for increasing the electric shock, either for themselves or for the other participant. The results were more positive than Milgram's original study, as participants were much more willing to shock themselves for extra money than shock the stranger, suggesting that we still place a large value on the well-being of others. Children enjoy the misfortunes of others, but they also sympathize with them. If you want to see the natural state of humanity, look at young children. They're all innocent little angels uncorrupted by society, right? Well, you may want to think again. A study published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology showed that even four-year-olds experience Schadenfreude, the pleasure of witnessing the misfortunes of others. Children judge stories of characters falling out of trees or into muddy puddles to be entertaining and funny, especially if the children thought the characters deserved it. A similar study published in Nature Human Behavior showed that preschoolers would rather pay to watch anti-social puppets being hit than spend the money on stickers. Sadly, psychology has demonstrated that even from a young age, humans possess an innate sense of ruthlessness and punishment. However, psychology has also found a natural sense of sympathy in young children. In the previous study, the children judging the stories may have felt pleasure about the bad characters experiencing misfortunes, but they also felt sorry for them at the same time. Even when it comes to sharing, young children go out of their way to achieve justice and address misfortunes. In one study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, paired two-year-olds were given a set of marbles to play with. In most cases, the toddlers spontaneously divided the marbles between themselves. In another version, the toddlers were each assigned unequal numbers of marbles. In a third of the trials, the more fortunate toddler gave marbles to the less fortunate toddler without prompting, showing we have the built-in capacity to respond to misfortunes. Case three, we blame other people for their suffering, but we help them anyway. Do you believe that everyone gets what they deserve? We commonly hear that what goes around comes around, or that successful people have worked hard to get where they are. Psychology has shown that we tend to believe in a just world where justice generally prevails and people are eventually compensated for fortunes and misfortunes. But this also means that we're prone to thinking that the unfortunate must have done something to deserve their fate. When study participants are asked to explain why there are poor people, rape victims, AIDS patients, cancer patients, quadriplegics, and traffic accident survivors, they twist facts or invent reasons that people caused their misfortunes themselves, rather than just being victims. Research suggests that we cling to this belief as a coping mechanism, even at the expense of others. However, research also says we are predisposed to trust and help other people by default. In a lab experiment, participants were given some money and they could choose how much to keep in a private fund or contribute to a common fund that was distributed among other participants. Even though the participants were all anonymous and the ideal strategy is to distrust everyone else and keep everything yourself, people consistently put most of their money into the common fund. The authors call this instinct strong reciprocity, where we help people despite not knowing them and not expecting anything in return. So there you have it. Studies show humans are both evil and good. Sorry, there are no straightforward answers in psychology. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. And don't forget to like and share this article if you think it'll help someone else. The studies and references used are listed in the description below. Until next time, take care and thanks for watching.