Human nature

Overview

Human beings, although generally lacking in strong instinctive behavior, do have certain innate tendencies that are not driven by pure reason.

Related Pages

• There are many beliefs about human nature which influence people's views on morality.
• The authoritarian mindset, for many years the subject of casual discussion but suspected by many to be an oversimplification, now has powerful scientific evidence supporting it.
• Humans seem wired for religion in many ways.
• There is some anecdotal evidence that indignation may be addictive.
• Parasitic organisms can influence animal behavior, including that of humans. Obvious examples include rabies, but it is possible that some peculiar human behaviors are due to less obvious and non-deadly parasitic invasions.

Related Concepts

• Love bombing is a deliberate, focused show of affection or friendship by an individual or a group of people toward another individual, with the effect that the target individual feels almost overwhelmingly welcomed by the group and is likely to actively seek additional contact. Critics have alleged that this technique is abused by cult religions such as the Church of Scientology.

Links

• The Fourth 'R', or Why Johnny Can't Reason by Dr. Herman T. Epstein: amazingly, studies show that over half of adult humans are "stuck" at a non-abstract level of reasoning. This information needs to be taken into account when planning the future of civilization, as it indicates that most people are not capable of the level of reasoning necessary to make sound decisions on major issues without depending on the opinions of others.
• 2007-03-22 [reg req]Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choices: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex appears to be responsible for the human reluctance to hurt one person in order to save the lives of others, as well as human compassion in general
• 2007-01-22 Why Do Good? Brain Study Offers Clues: People may not perform selfless acts just for an emotional reward, a new brain study suggests. Instead, they may do good because they're acutely tuned into the needs and actions of others. New research at Duke University shows that a piece of the brain linked to perceiving others' intentions shows more activity in people who display unselfish behavior, and less in those who act more selfishly.

Arguments

It has been suggested that studies such as the Stanford prison experiment [W] and The Third Wave [W] (not to mention the events in Nazi Germany which were the inspiration for the latter) strongly argue in favor of the evilness of human nature. Note for later: also the Milgram experiment [W], which is put nicely in context in one of the chapters of The Authoritarians