This is a topic I’ve been asked about a lot, and finally gotten around to writing down. No, I’m not a moralist or an expert on human psychology. What I am is someone who meets a lot of people all over the world. I interact with locals and tourists, with singles and couples, with large groups and in more intimate settings. I have languages in common with some, and not with others. Some customs are familiar; others are more foreign to me. But all involve fairly ordinary people.

I want to add a disclaimer here. There is a difference between people and societies. There is even a difference between people and groups (however people choose to organize). I have yet to encounter a society (think national government) that I believe is truly good. I find even the concept of nations to be fraught with issues (you can read more about that here in my observations from the US-Mexico border), but beyond the basic separation of people into “us” and “not us,” I don’t trust any society to care for an individual. Every one I’ve encountered would gladly sacrifice any person’s life, liberty, or happiness on the altar of national stability (read: the people in power remaining so) couched as “greater good.”

The same goes – in my own personal observations – with the overwhelming majority of groups that people strongly identify with: race, religion, gender, and even down to seemingly silly things like “fans of xyz sports team” or “members of abc club/order.” These again separate people into “us” and “not us,” creating totally false hierarchies that people use to look down on others. More wars have been fought over ethnic or religious identity than national (even if presented as nation versus nation). And if you’ve ever attended a European football match, you’d know the level of pure contempt and hatred fans of various clubs have for each other, emotions that routinely lead to violence.

But if we remove those things, strip a person down past those elements, what do we find? If we look at an individual just as one being, not a (using myself as an example) German-American male cis-het Jewish fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, what then? Are people generally good?

(Note, good is not the same as being friendly or welcoming. Ted Bundy was supposed to have been a friendly and charismatic person, but obviously not a good one. Now that’s an extreme case, but what I’m saying is that France having the reputation of its people being unfriendly or Curacao as incredibly warm and friendly doesn’t affect the concept of good. FYI, I can personally back the two aforementioned national stereotypes as largely being true.)

In my travels, meeting people from all over, I would start by saying that people, again just in my own personal observation, are not evil. That’s a start. Yes, there are some bad eggs, eggs who tend to be a lot louder, but they are a tiny minority. The overwhelming majority of people out there would not try to hit me with their cars, even if there were no repercussions to doing so. They would not cheat me in their shops or restaurants, hit me with sticks (even knowing all those things I use to identify myself), or endeavor in any way to make my life worse.

However, just as it is only a tiny fraction of people who would do those things, I believe only a similar tiny fraction of people (perhaps larger than the evil ones, but far from a plurality, let alone a majority) would help me if I were hit by a car if it would make them ten minutes late for an appointment. Few would intervene if I were being hit by someone with a stick, and virtually none if I were merely being threatened, especially if doing so were even the slightest inconvenience.

So what does that make people? If people only care for their own families, friends, and identified groups, are they good or bad? Well, neither. They are people. Humans have shown a remarkable ability in our history to not care beyond those intimate communal groups, but that is to be expected from an evolutionary sense. Few chimpanzees would probably help another chimp outside their own family unit, let alone an elephant that was in trouble. Humans only take it a step further and have zero qualms about killing all elephants if it would help their own pods. (But they might speak out if another pod were doing it. See: first world countries lecturing developing nations about not cutting down their forests.)

So, are people generally good? In my experience traveling the world, no. But neither are they evil. They are just uncaring about anything that doesn’t directly affect them or their immediate community. Take that as you will.