

Virtual World Study Reveals The Origin of Good and Evil Behaviour - ajitk
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26967/

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ajitk
Quoting from the article:

Thurner and co found that positive behaviour intensifies after an individual
receives a positive action.

"The probability of acting out negative actions is about 10 times higher if a
person received a negative action at the previous timestep than if she
received a positive action," they say.

"We interpret these ﬁndings as empirical evidence for self organization
towards reciprocal, good conduct within a human society," they say.

In other words, _humanity is fundamentally good_.

~~~
pasbesoin
Some conjectures (frankly, after having just read the title):

\+ Good and bad are both cascade effects.

\+ Religion might be seen as a device to "generate" a good motive albeit one
external to the immediate environment/circumstance, the goal being to promote
"good" behavior in the face of / despite being the recipient of "bad" behavior
or circumstances. (The follow on questions might be what is defined as "good"
behavior and whom is it benefiting.)

\+ Our actions do indeed affect others, and perhaps not just those we are
immediately involved with.

\+ Altruism is about bettering the environment within which we exist.

Note also that, per the link at the end of the article, this study is not
behind a paywall:

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.0392>

