How many people, do you believe, are truly "good" people at heart, and would behave well even if there's no consequences for not being good?

In simpler terms, let me use an example:

You're in a public place when, unbeknownst to you, your wallet falls out of your pocket, in clear sight of John Doe, who is a random stranger. Do you think most people, in John Doe's place, would return the wallet to you? What percentage of people would not do anything at all? More than that, what's the chance that John would just take the wallet for himself?

Keep in mind that (in this hypothetical situation) there are no rewards for doing the right thing other than the feeling of being a good person.

Do you believe most people are "good" at the heart, Newgrounds?

Meh. We all have the good and the bad... and the ugly.

But the good these days usually hide the goodness because assholes seem to be the HOT thing.

Yes, I do. Well, at least most other people I believe always act on good intentions, even if their actions don't correspond (for example, I wouldn't hold it against John Doe if he just held onto the cash because he was poor, and hungry).

However, I'm the sort of person who a century ago would have been a slaver, so either way it's not exactly like I can judge.

I don't believe its quite as simple as that. These things are not black and white. Everybody is a different shade of gray.

But, to answer your question, I feel most people would keep the wallet, or turn a blind eye. Personally, I'd return it. Just like when I worked fast-food, and I'd run out to customer's cars to return the iPhone they left at their table.

I act without malice but I don't believe I'm intrinsically good or evil. The nicest thing I've done this week was put money in an empty parking meter that wasn't mine. Namely because I know how it feels to get a parking ticket and it sucks donkey ass through a straw.

I'm a good person. I'm just lazy and slightly pervy. That doesn't make me a bad person.

To be honest, I don't think many people would return the wallet, mainly because money is a tight subject these days. I really don't have to worry about money since I'm only 15, but I would definitely return the wallet. I would never be able to steal it. If I did, it would haunt me for a long time. I always put myself in the other persons shoes, and I imagine if that wallet was mine, and somebody took it (I've had my money stolen numerous times). I actually had to buy a damn strongbox to keep my money in, because my 22 year old sister steals it...

I have a good guy greg mind.

It depends. It's hard to classify anyone as inherently good or bad, even yourself.

In this scenario I'm not sure what I'd do. I've found a wallet at school before. I returned it to the office, but the first thing I did was check to see how much money was in it. I'm honestly not sure if I would have done the same thing if it had more than a few dollars inside.

I think that it's about 50/50. There's no shortage of people that are out to rip you off and hurt you in varying degrees, but you can't assume anything.

At 12/10/12 08:35 PM, T3XT wrote: Do you believe most people are "good" at the heart, Newgrounds?

Honestly, yes. I think the cynics who would disagree have very selective memories, keeping track of all the little slights committed against them but forgetting all the little kindnesses (if they even noticed them happening in the first place).

And it doesn't help that local media only reports on the darkest depths of human behavior when all the good that people do goes ignored because it isn't sensational enough.

everyone does good and bad things, mostly towards good because then they get positive results back + morals

nothing complicated about it

I'm always a good person in real life. When there's something wrong I try every way I can to resolve it. I always feel to do the right thing in situations. If there's a feud I go in Dr. Phil mode and fix the problem.

None. People are raised to behave altruistically, which is unnatural. Evil is ingrained in the human core.

At 12/10/12 11:00 PM, satanbrain wrote: None. People are raised to behave altruistically, which is unnatural.

Humans are social animals and humans are raised to behave altruistically for reasons that are perfectly natural.
Imagine how long a large society would last if there either weren't enough altruists or no one to enforce order.

At 12/10/12 11:11 PM, DickChick wrote:

At 12/10/12 11:00 PM, satanbrain wrote: None. People are raised to behave altruistically, which is unnatural.

Humans are social animals and humans are raised to behave altruistically for reasons that are perfectly natural.
Imagine how long a large society would last if there either weren't enough altruists or no one to enforce order.

Those stronger will enforce their will upon others, who will excuse compliance by altruism. Humans are egocentric, your own survival matters more than your neighbor's.

At 12/10/12 11:17 PM, satanbrain wrote: Those stronger will enforce their will upon others, who will excuse compliance by altruism.
Humans are egocentric, your own survival matters more than your neighbor's.

It's not completely egocentric in most cases. Even "bad" people have to work with each other, or at the very least comply to orders from a common leader. I'm not arguing that humans are inherently "good". I'm saying that it's in our nature to work together. When it comes down to it, your own survival is more important sometimes but what about the survival of your group? Your family and friends? Soldiers die for each other because it's in their nature to protect their group. Because humans are social animals.

If this wasn't true, then society wouldn't exist in the first place.

I would probably give it back but if I was poor and needed the money I would keep it and do the best I can to keep the guilt/empathy out of my thoughts

Most people are dicks
i'd say about 1/100 people are actually good, but that might be an over estimate

A lot of people try to be good, and make a valiant effort at it, but at some point everyone breaks.

Nobody is perfect

At 12/10/12 08:35 PM, T3XT wrote: You're in a public place when, unbeknownst to you, your wallet falls out of your pocket, in clear sight of John Doe, who is a random stranger. Do you think most people, in John Doe's place, would return the wallet to you? What percentage of people would not do anything at all? More than that, what's the chance that John would just take the wallet for himself?

This is kind of a poor example. Most people would return the wallet because society has conditioned us to do it; in reality the consequences of guilt are too easy to avoid by just handing the wallet back. It's almost like it's a matter of convenience.

When you ask how many people are 'good' or 'bad', I can confidently say that almost everyone thinks that they're doing the right thing. Almost everyone fits inside of a culture that operates on a moral code, and they behave accordingly. Sociopaths are just about the only exception to this rule, and they only make up 1% of the population.

But when it comes down to people doing immoral things, almost everyone is bad in that they will delude themselves or falsely justify lazy, selfish, or spite-based actions and continue carrying out those acts. Most people like to believe they're good at heart but will default to selfish behavior when a situation is even slightly in the gray area.

At 12/11/12 05:09 AM, Kwing wrote: Stuff.

This man sure hit the nail right on the head.

I would return it.

But I'm not sure if I would lose mine I would keep my hopes up to find it again.

i am a horrible person,you should all know this

I try to be good. I can be snappy (mainly online), but I have never called someone out in public or insulted them or started shit. I'm probably the closest it's going to get next to monks.

No one is good. Everyone is evil. Mankind is nothing but a race of savages fighting for dominance in a system of cruelty of their own making. you may argue " well im not evil, iv never hurt anyone....." but thats a lie. Everyone, at some point, has lied, cheated, stolen or insulted their fellow man in some way. There is one exception, and that is children who have died young before they ever got the chance to do something evil, so realy the only people who are good are already dead. LOL

At 12/11/12 12:09 PM, Jackospades wrote: No one is good. Everyone is evil. Mankind is nothing but a race of savages fighting for dominance in a system of cruelty of their own making. you may argue " well im not evil, iv never hurt anyone....." but thats a lie. Everyone, at some point, has lied, cheated, stolen or insulted their fellow man in some way. There is one exception, and that is children who have died young before they ever got the chance to do something evil, so realy the only people who are good are already dead. LOL

You're on the right track. As living creatures, the only thing we have in mind is to spread and populate. There are no "ethics" or anything like that. We're not evil. We're just greedy little organisms like everything else. Of course, nowadays, it's a little different, but mostly the same. LOL

I believe everyone is 'good' until circumstances outweigh what a person may do in certain situations.

In that case, if the person already had money or was rich, a wallet would be of no use to them, so either they would leave it or return it; but a person who is in need of money of course would AT LEAST take the money out of it, but only because they NEEDED the money, not necessarily just to be bad.

Basically we are all good in some way, but sometimes we put ourselves before others needs which is sort of natural human instinct, but it all comes down to what type of person the individual is.

I'm a heavy believer in KARMA though and I've seen it in the works many of times

At 12/11/12 12:15 PM, jjjkuk wrote:

At 12/11/12 12:09 PM, Jackospades wrote: No one is good. Everyone is evil. Mankind is nothing but a race of savages fighting for dominance in a system of cruelty of their own making. you may argue " well im not evil, iv never hurt anyone....." but thats a lie. Everyone, at some point, has lied, cheated, stolen or insulted their fellow man in some way. There is one exception, and that is children who have died young before they ever got the chance to do something evil, so realy the only people who are good are already dead. LOL

You're on the right track. As living creatures, the only thing we have in mind is to spread and populate. There are no "ethics" or anything like that. We're not evil. We're just greedy little organisms like everything else. Of course, nowadays, it's a little different, but mostly the same. LOL

Truth. The same goes for every organism in history, regardless of origin. The entire idea of life is in it self is imperfect and cruel. Infact you could say that the idea of "good" is pointless and nonexistent when it comes to life. Me and jjjkuk just destroyed the entire base of your topic T3XT, and have essentially undermined this entire post with pure philosophical and logic power. You loose T3XT. Game over.

At 12/11/12 12:25 PM, Jackospades wrote: Truth. The same goes for every organism in history, regardless of origin. The entire idea of life is in it self is imperfect and cruel. Infact you could say that the idea of "good" is pointless and nonexistent when it comes to life. Me and jjjkuk just destroyed the entire base of your topic T3XT, and have essentially undermined this entire post with pure philosophical and logic power. You loose T3XT. Game over.

Bingo. We do like to think in morals, though. I know that "being good" has me go out of my way to help someone, but I like helping people and being seen in a positive view. It's completely against the point of life, since we're supposed to be fighting each other, but idgaf. I'm not one for normality.

At 12/10/12 08:35 PM, T3XT wrote: You're in a public place when, unbeknownst to you, your wallet falls out of your pocket, in clear sight of John Doe, who is a random stranger. Do you think most people, in John Doe's place, would return the wallet to you? What percentage of people would not do anything at all? More than that, what's the chance that John would just take the wallet for himself?

I see people accidentally dropping things all the time and so far I've never ever caught anybody who then stole the dropped object. So from personal experience I'd say almost everybody will alert you. It's also that more people will usually notice so if you plan on stealing the object it's highly likely somebody will see you doing that. I think many people realise that and therefore won't even try.

There is a not a single "good" person on Earth, they wouldn't be human if they were "good".