Are People Good or Bad? Why This Question Affects Your Leadership

A friend and I were recently talking about a popular philosophical question: are humans inherently evil? Like many philosophers, religions, and psychologists before us, we landed on different ends of the spectrum, got nowhere, and left with our original points of view. 

The 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes thought humans were naturally selfish and violent. He believed that, without the constraints of society, life would be "nasty, brutish, and short." 

On the other hand, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that humans are inherently good and that society corrupts them.

The Buddhists believe humans are neither inherently good nor evil but are shaped by their actions and intentions. 

All three vantage points are equally convincing and unhelpful. 

Although I find discussions like this interesting, I don't typically last long. You won't find me burning three hours on a Tuesday reading everyone's philosophical thoughts on a Reddit thread. Actually, you'll never find me on Reddit.

In his book Before Happiness, author Shawn Achor writes about how our senses can receive up to eleven million pieces of information every second, but our conscious brain can only effectively process about forty bits of information.

Because of our squirrely little brains, Achor argues the importance of understanding the difference between signal and noise. He writes,

"Signal is information that is true and reliable and alerts you to the opportunities, possibilities, and resources that will help you reach your fullest potential."

"Noise is everything else: any information that is negative, false, or unnecessary or that prevents you from perceiving a world in which success is possible."

And he has a great framework for how to distinguish between noise and signal:

• Is it Usable? Your behavior will not be altered by the information
• Is it Untimely? You are not going to use that information imminently, and it could change by the time you do use it.
• Is it Hypothetical? Is it based on what someone believes “could be” instead of “what is.”?
• Is it Distracting? Does it distracts you from your goals

I’d also add…. is it beneficial? Does this make me a better human being? Does it alter my behavior in a positive way?

There's a lot of noise in the question of whether humans are good or evil at the core. A lot of meandering dialogue, different viewpoints, and a resolution that will never arrive. Good sport for some, but damn, I'm late for my 3:30 meeting, gotta grab the dry cleaning, take my wife on a date, and hit the weights still today.

But here's the point: there is a signal amongst all the noise in this question. For our purposes at Take Care, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not, but your beliefs about it. Do you believe human beings are fundamentally good or evil? This is an important signal to your ability to lead, manage, and coach. As we talk about all the time, our beliefs shape our behaviors, and those behaviors shape our results.

And this belief has real-world consequences…

The Givers, Takers, Matchers

Wharton School professor and dude making psychology cool around the world, Adam Grant, has a book called Give and Take. He found there are four ingredients that highly successful people have: motivation, ability, opportunity, and how we interact with others. He calls these interactions “reciprocity styles,” and he spent more than ten years studying how these styles affected success.

According to Grant, there are three reciprocity styles:

1. Givers:These are people who focus on “giving more than they get.” They pay more attention to what other people need from them than what they need from others. They try to consistently act in the interest of others by providing help, resources, mentorship, sharing credit, and making connections for others. They believe others are generally good, have good intentions, and give the benefit of the doubt.  

2. Takers:These people are the opposite. They take a “what’s in it for me “approach to every interaction. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, folks, and the world is a zero-sum game. Your winnings are my losses. Your meal is food off my plate. They self-promote and make sure they get plenty of credit for their efforts. They tend to be self-focused and constantly evaluate what others can offer them.
3. Matchers:As the name suggests, these people will wait and let you make your move first. They’ll see how others act and then match their style. They’ll become a giver with other givers and takers with takers.

Here’s where things get spicy. Of these three styles, who do you think is the most successful (in terms of money, status, power, happiness, health, and relationships)? And who is the least successful?  

The answer is…. GIVERS. 

Gives tend to both rise to the top of the success ladder and sink to the bottom. Takers and matchers end up falling in the middle.

The difference between the “successful givers” and “nice guy finishes last givers” is subtle but important. Successful givers lead with a giving attitude, but when somebody screws them, they take note and become a matcher. 

The Nice Guys also lead by giving but never adjust after they get burned. They never stand up for themselves and don’t build boundaries, so they get stomped on.

It’s the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Or, as George W. Bush once said, “Ya fool me, ya can’t git fooled again!”

So, it’s useful to start from the belief that most people have good intentions, deserve the benefit of the doubt, and are inherently good. 

Other research shows that people who are kind live longer, ethical people are happier, and top military leaders are actually supportive rather than hard asses. 

The Love Hormone

Okay, maybe you think that's a cute little framework. But at our core, we're animals. Sick, sick, evil animals.

We've all heard of the "fight or flight" stress response. This is the biological wiring that, when faced with a threat, causes the release of stress hormones adrenalin, noradrenalin, and cortisol to give us the energy required to deal with a stressful situation. Our heart rate increases, our vision narrows, and our muscles tighten as we get ready to fight off a threat or GTFO (hence, fight or flight).

But there's a lesser-known stress response that scientists are starting to understand. They call it the "tend and befriend" response. Oxytocin is a hormone that is released from the pituitary gland that has rep as the "love hormone" – it's released when we cuddle, have sex, and feel all lovey-dovey with someone. However, its larger, primary function is to build and strengthen social bonds. It makes us more empathetic, intuitive, and courageous. Oxytocin actually dampens the fear response in our brains.

It's also released as part of our stress response. It causes us to reach out to others and makes us more responsive to others (which is why it's called the tend-and-befriend response). It motivates us to protect the people and communities we care about.

Consider the better angels of our nature. Sometimes, the moments of the selfish, evil animal inside disappears entirely and we do things that defy logic. We put our own lives in danger to save another. Think of the soldier who sacrifices his own life for his comrade, or the mother who puts herself between danger and her children, or the man in the red bandana.

These inexplicable acts of courage may have a biological component that shows we're not selfish, zero-sum animals, but some piece of the human spirit is selfless, caring, and desires a greater good.

Your Believes Shape You

We’ll close out with a study, of course. Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal told teachers who the “gifted and talented” students were in their classes. Unsurprisingly, these gifted children finished with the highest grades and best behavior.

The plot twist, because every good psych study has one, was that Rosenthal picked kids at random. The “gifted” kids were no smarter than the rest of the class and, in some cases, were low performers. But because of the teachers’ beliefs, they treated the kids as “high performers” – held them to a standard, provided support when they struggled, and the kids lived up to the reputation.

Our expectations often form our reality. Your beliefs about others matter. If you think they’re lazy, selfish, or careless, they’ll prove you right. If you believe they are well-intended, thoughtful, and hardworking, they can become that, too.

So the truth of whether people are good or evil doesn’t really matter, but your answer to that question will cascade throughout the people you lead, your own performance, and your well-being at large.

And frankly, it’s just a more pleasant way to live life.