...Marsh demonstrates that “an overwhelming body of scientific data supports the conclusion that human beings are in no way fundamentally selfish or callous.” In all of us there is the capacity for compassion and, at the same time, the capacity for cruelty and aggression.
...Research findings indicate that “the United States is a more generous country than nearly any other nation on earth.” Confirming the observations of my Albanian student, the data find that Americans especially “stand out in giving help to needy strangers.”
...Marsh defines altruism as “acting with the ultimate goal of benefiting another’s welfare.” She explains, “Altruism is not simply a matter of having the ability to experience compassion and provide care. Nearly everyone can be compassionate and caring—at least to some people. The real question is, what do you do with that capacity when the person in need of your compassion and generosity is a stranger?”
In tribal and collectivist societies, there is little regard for strangers....
...In short, Marsh reports, “Decades of social psychology research also make it exceedingly clear that dividing people into clearly defined groups is a great way to get them to treat members of the other groups worse.”
How curious it is that those who proclaim their great love for others often promote tribal identity politics which is correlated with treating worse those outside one’s “group.”
Contrary to collectivism, capitalism widens our circle of compassion to include strangers. As Marsh puts it, “In individualist cultures, high relational mobility means that anyone unfamiliar could ‘one day become a friend.’”
...The rise in altruism that Marsh observes has occurred concurrently with the rise of capitalism. This correlation is not spurious. To do business, we learn to trust strangers and to be trustworthy to strangers. As a consequence, we are placing “more value on the welfare of strangers.”
Marsh points to increases in the quality of life: “The proportion of people living in abject poverty… Dropped from around 90 percent of the global population in 1820 to just under 10 percent today.” She adds, “these increases in prosperity and quality of life have been the source of many other positive downstream effects—which include ongoing positive trends in generosity and altruism towards strangers.”
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Originally Posted by midcan5
