Positive human qualities with which...we are born

Besides the acquired ones, there are also innate human qualities

And now we are talking about positive qualities, instinctive starts from the area of ​​manifestations that we, adults, attribute to goodness. Well, yes, we are born good! And then, I ask you, what happens on the road? Why do some of us forget goodness to embrace other, less good feelings? Is it the fault of the family, the society, the television, the computer, that girl who broke your heart? But, just as without darkness we would not know what that light is, without malice perhaps we would not truly appreciate goodness.

Human qualities in focus: We are born good

The fragment below - the full text in English on smithsonianmag.com - confirms to many of us an expectation that makes us happy but, at the same time, makes us think: "Children come into the world endowed with rich and extensive pro-social tendencies and, apparently, they are prone to care about other people.

Children can figure out what is good and what is bad and often act in an altruistic manner. "The act of giving leads to happiness for small children", was the conclusion of a study that looked at babies under 2 years old, and another study, which aimed at babies between 19 and 21 months concluded: "babies know what fairness is ".

According to the latest research in the field, babies help others instinctively, trying to alleviate their suffering at the cost of their own comfort, worrying if the "work of art" built during play by another child is destroyed and sharing the rewards for a task they had in common, regardless of whether this reward is empty bread or candy. (...)

There is no moral module in us that we are born with. But the elements that are the basis of morality - altruism, empathy, understanding the needs of others - are in us much earlier than we would have been tempted to believe and, clearly, they are in us before we turn two years old."

I think, therefore, that if this seed of goodness exists in us, we can start watering it at any time and make the tree of goodness become towering. If evil is learned, we are born with goodness.