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[–] 0 points 4 days ago (1 child)

if empathy was truly universally favored by evolution, then there wouldn't be any non-emphathetic humans today and we wouldn't have this discussion, just saying.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago

    That's not at all how that works. First at no point have I made any "universally" claims. Nothing in evolution or psychology is 100% universal. Second, empathy, on average, is good for the health of the species. Selfishness is a gamble: it can dramatically increase the individual's odds of passing on their genes but it requires enough non-selfish targets to exploit or it actually has a negative impact. More simply, jackasses fighting each other are worse off than pacifists working together.

    So what's favored is for most people to be altruistic and a small percentage of predators take advantage of them.

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