Evil has been with us since “Original Sin” some religious will say.

But Frans de Waal, a leading (perhaps the leading) primatologist also says that compassion and empathy has been with us since there was an “us”.

There is exciting new research about the origins of altruism and fairness in both ourselves and other animals. For example, if one gives two monkeys hugely different rewards for the same task, the one who gets the short end of the stick simply refuses to perform. In our own species, too, individuals reject income if they feel the distribution is unfair. Since any income should beat none at all, this means that both monkeys and people fail to follow the profit principle to the letter. By protesting against unfairness, their behavior supports both the claim that incentives matter and that there is a natural dislike of injustice.

From Frans de Waals new book The Age of Empathy: Natures Lessons for Kinder Soceity

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