Do you believe people are truly good at their core? Or do you believe we're all just faking it for acceptance and validation?

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

The reason I ask this is because I heard a story from someone who was part of a psychological experiment. They brought people into two groups, just Group A and Group B. He was brought in with 3 or 4 other people to act as the board of a fake pharmaceutical company and they were presented with an issue of having a drug that caused death in 10% of all the people who took it, and they were given options for solutions that ranged from most to least ethical. The most ethical was to destroy the medicine causing these deaths, they also presented some less ethical options such as making an announcement about the drug and pausing production to continue research, placing a warning on the bottle for the people who took it, or the least ethical option: make no changes at all and continue on.

The guy telling the story wanted to go with the most ethical option and was shocked when none of the group would agree with him, and they eventually settled on the option to put out a warning but not make any changes. This was Group B.

Group A was individual people brought in and told they were the president of said fake pharmaceutical company and they were presented with the same issue and given the same list of options from most to least ethical. And almost all of the time, when it was an individual making the decisions, they would choose the MOST ethical option rather than the worst. Group B would often pick the LEAST ethical option if they agreed to that consensus.

When asked what this experiment concluded, the man conducting it said it meant one of two things: Either that we are good people at our core and act unethically because of societal expectations of us, or that we are truly unethical people at our core and only act good when the blame is solely on us for doing something bad.

So I'm curious to know what you think. Do you believe we're all good and just act bad because of circumstances outside of our control? Or are we all just bad people that try to be good and accepted?

[Guy13]

Human beings are totally depraved. At least me for I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but do the very thing I hate. For I know nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh (humanness).

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want to do but the evil that I do not want is what I keep doing.

[NathanDavis]

I do know for a fact that good people ar truly good at their core

but I also know that not everyone is entirely 100% good, that is just being truly human

and I also know that no, not all the people are good... bad ones and truly bad ones also exist

[Lynnfriend]

Well I believe we are a product of our upbringing and most people want their children to be good people and teach them right from wrong I believe people will generally do whst they believe to be right. However when in a group they discuss different opinions and come up with 1 opinion they can all live with. But when you only have your opinion that's what you go with

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe you have genuinely nice people and you have people who try to be good but fail miserably. And you also have those who don’t even try to be good.

[Kaneki05]

That's a fallacy of believing in bad or good in the first place.
Scientifically it don't exist. A rock or bactria or human cannot be objectively bad. Bad and good are things we define subjectively based on how it impacts ourselves or others.

[NotTacocaT6969]

Some people are good without trying to be, some people are bad without trying to be.


There is no other way to explain it.

[ArtemisSilver]

I think that it's very easy to kill ceaser when everyone else is doing it.

As for human nature, it's half good and half evil. Which one wins? The one you feed

[Berethor]

Humans are Flawed Trope, and anyway Animals are not better, Nature is not Nice Trope.