Is man selfish or altruistic? Greedy or cooperative?

[bryant69]

Which of these qualities does humanity posses more of?

Bryant
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[bryant69]

1. For those who think it is Biased or Bullshit, why?

Wherein did I err?

Bryant

[patrice]

2. These are false dichotomies. nm

[bryant69]

4. How so?

Aren't Selfishness and Altruism the opposites of each other?

[patrice]

6. In most individuals, two characteristics are rarely mutually exclusive. nm

[bryant69]

8. No they aren't. But this poll doesn't imply that

Rather we are all a bit greedy and a bit cooperative. But which one are we more? Are we more cooperative? or more Greedy/selfish?

[patrice]

9. Okay, that's a starting point, but . . .

"more" can be anything from 50.0...1 to 99.9...9%

I guess I'd just ask people to try to quantify the ratio of one to the other: 50:50, 49:51, ... 70:30, whatever, or offer some ranges that they can choose to best typify the circumstances in question.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. I vote considerably more altruism, but with a caveat -

it often does not extend beyond the tribe.

Cooperation is the foundation of society, and we succeed best when we all succeed, but we reserve our cooperation to our family, our tribe, our region, our nation, our ethnic grouping, more or less in that order. Different people reach their limit at lower levels than others.

Those whose focus is on greed and selfishness are called sociopaths.

[dave_p]

5. I'd put it slightly differently

... to me the two drives are competition and cooperation. And I think they've tended to co-exist in approximate balance until now, in fact they've been fundamental to our material achievements: the first makes us want to do things better, while the second brings us together to do it better still.

If anything's changed, it isn't us, it's that the most rabid non-cooperators have taken control of the levers of social organization and are furiously dismantling everything that makes modern living decent for the majority.

I don't like "altruism". I'm a very cooperative, collective-type person, but I've no time for altruism: instead I value the collective social interest I share with most people. Altruists are as much a menace as the greedy dynasts: at least the latter don't actually believe everything they do is intrinsically "good" and therefore unquestionable by any but devils in human form.

[genie_weenie]

7. Most humans are altruistic when dealing

with memebers of their own kin group. And act selfishly towards members outside their kin group. There are always a small percentage which will may act selfish or altruisitc regardless of the group.

Kin group has evolved over the years. For example, the military has worked very hard to indoctrinate members to view others in their unit, branch as kin.

[patrice]

10. Yep! That's related to (or maybe caused by) "attribution bias".

My errors/flaws/shortcomings/needs (or those of my ________) are a result of situational, and hence transitory, characteristics.

The errors/flaws/shortcomings/needs of others (not me or my __________) are the result of his/her/their intrinsic, and hence permanent, characteristics.