Just came across an interesting article in Newsweek proposing that children are inherently prejudiced against the less fortunate.
-snip-
"Why would children have such a cynical attitude toward privilege and misfortune? One theory, Olson says, is that humans have a very powerful need to believe in a just world, where good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people. The kids appear to be generalizing their emotional response, so that they cannot distinguish between malevolence and misfortune. If you get a bad roll of the dice, you somehow must have deserved it, even if the reason is not readily apparent."
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It was an interesting, if somewhat lightly written, article that made me wonder if compassion and empathy were indeed learned responses, or if they are genetically motivated responses, or some combination of the two. Not just in children mind, you, but in individuals of all ages.
I always had a difficult time teasing it out for myself. Both of my parents are compassionate and empathetic people, as am I, so it could be an either/or OR both situation for me. However, someone very close to me comes from a very unsympathetic, somewhat Machiavellian family, yet he himself is remarkably compassionate and empathetic.
link to article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16286475/site/newsweek/edited for spelling
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