With apologies to M People, what have you done today to make you feel kind?
Did you let the woman with the buggy get on the bus in front of you? Did you make sure you had the change ready for your local shopkeeper when you bought that loaf of bread? Did you stop your car to let a pedestrian cross the road?
If you did any of those things, you are placing yourself apart from much of the animal kingdom. And you are definitely not a chimp.
Humanity’s random acts of kindness are “spectacularly unusual when compared to other animals”, according to the journal Frontiers in Psychology. A chimp who strays into another group of chimps, tired, hungry, desperate for help, shouldn’t be surprised if, instead of offers of food and a hug, it was fiercely attacked.
Chimps are, of course, nice to each other on occasion, but humans are a different animal. Humans are born to be kind. Humans care about the welfare of others. Humans feel the pain and joy of others. Humans love social norms and to order and structure how they live as a group.
According to researchers, chimpanzees are no more likely to choose an option that benefits another chimpanzee and also themselves over an option that only benefits themselves. There you go… selfish.
Humans are born to be kind.
Psychologists call us “ultrasocial”. Recent reactions to the location of a temporary halting site near to a street in Dublin’s Carrickmines, to house those Travellers left bereaved, homeless and traumatised by the recent fatal fire at their halting site, may make you question this “ultrasocial” label, but the research shows that being kind is part of human nature.
Watch children to see those first signs of ultrasociality. When a 12-month-old sees an adult searching for an object and they know where it is, they point to it. Psychologists concluded that as the children gained nothing themselves from their helpful pointing, it can be considered a “prosocial” act – that’s a kind thing to do, to you and me.
By 14 months, infants help others in simple ways, such as by handing them out-of-reach objects. They also start to share. Anyone who has tried to force a toddler to hand over a treasured toy to a playmate, will testify that sharing can be a challenge. Sharing is hard, even for us grown-ups, but sharing is vital to the way human societies evolve, Frontiers in Psychology reported.
This week, the Budget saw many of us scurrying to our computers and newspapers to see how many euro a week we might have gained through increased benefits and reductions in social charges and taxes. As that old Scottish guy used to say: “Many a mickel makes a muckle.” Yet the new research might shame us into rediscovering our empathy, our collectivity and our kindness.
The Common Cause website recently conducted a poll of 1,000 Britons to see how they had felt about voting in the 2015 general election. And, brushing over the result of that election, kindness triumphed.
Some 74 per cent of British citizens said they place greater importance on “self-transcendence” values than on “self-enhancement” values. In layperson’s terms, they valued helpfulness, honesty, forgiveness, peace, justice, equality, beauty and protection of the environment over social power, wealth, authority, public image, social recognition, success, influence and ambition.
People who cared more about helpfulness and honesty were “particularly sensitive in their voting behaviour”, the survey found. They were also more likely to vote, particularly if they felt that others shared their values.
When it comes to welcoming those who need refuge, at home and abroad, the research would suggest that humans want to be kind and are ready to share our toys.
