Are humans born good and slowly corrupted, or are they born bad and kept in check by laws? People have stumbled over this question for centuries, and not many puzzled people have found an answer. It is a fundamental question, both sides lack substantial evidence, probably because it is quite hard to to measure and quantify the nature of people as good or bad.
Let's consider babies, who do not have any information stored about what is right and what is wrong. They have not yet made friends, been exposed to cultural influence or attended school. Babies' uninfluenced minds are significantly better for research on humans' inherent nature, however they cannot speak. It would be extremely difficult for researches to know what the baby is thinking when the baby does not know the language yet. Fortunately, researchers have discovered a way to around the language barrier.
Infants are known to touch anything they find interesting, hold an object they like or stare at something that catches their eye. Students at Yale University have used this curiosity to test infants' knowledge of right and wrong. The results collected at Yale show that even the youngest minds comprehend the difference between right and wrong.
Yale's research also shows that infants have an instinct to prefer good over evil. The infants had expectations about how people should act, interpreting the movement of the shapes as resulting from motivations. The infants preferred helpful motivations to hindering ones.
The research at Yale does not settle the discussion about natural instinct. A cynic could say that the findings merely show that infants are self-interested and expect others to be the same. But in actuality, we were born with the natural ability to make sense of the world in terms of motivations, and we were born equipped with a basic instinct to prefer friendly intentions over malicious ones. It is on this foundation that adult morality is built. We are born good.
We all want to help one another. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each others' misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
As we grow older and learn how the world works, we becomes corrupted. Rarely do we turn on the news and see that a young child has killed or has attempted to kill someone. Since children are at the most innocent age, they have no evil intentions. Greed has poisoned men's souls.
Technology today puts thing at our fingertips, yet we are still unsatisfied. We have developed vehicles, but we have shut ourselves in. We have machinery that gives goods in abundance, but we are left wanting more. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
-Verissimo is a sophomore computer science major from Lagos, Nigeria.