Cooperation and the Mistaken Belief of Human Nature

To deal with global environmental and humanitarian crises, humanity needs cooperation at all levels from local to international. One significant barrier to cooperation is widespread distrust of other people, institutions, and nations, which is founded on a mistaken belief that human nature is fundamentally selfish. To achieve the UN Sustainability Goals (SDGs) in time to preserve a livable planet for future generations, innate human cooperation needs to be unshackled. Research, both real-world and experimental, consistently shows that most people are motivated by concern for others, disconfirming the theory of essential human selfishness. This evidence is not widely known, even among psychologists. The discipline of psychology could play a vital role in environmental action by widely disseminating this evidence to correct our mistaken view of human nature. To that end, this paper describes a sample of the evidence showing intuitive altruism and discusses factors such as wealth and distrust that suppress cooperation.