Why can good people still do bad things?

American scientists think that each person has two ethical systems and sometimes they disagree. Then people are ready to conduct unethical acts.

Newcientist reported that Robert Kurzban, an expert at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, and colleagues recruited a group of volunteers to perform an experiment. They told volunteers that an electric train off-track and 5 people on board could be killed. The group of volunteers must decide to drive the train to another track, where a person is standing, or let the train continue to run on the old track. Most volunteers decided to drive the train to another track to reduce the loss of life.

The team then set out the next situation: Volunteers have to push one person into the track so the train stops running. Most volunteers expressed hesitation or objections.

A good person can still do bad things.

'It shows that the majority of humanity does not want to directly steal another person's life, even if that behavior serves a noble purpose , ' the team commented.

When asked to evaluate their decisions morally, 85% of volunteers said it was wrong to push a life to save 5 others. Despite this, 28% of volunteers admitted they were still willing to sacrifice a person to save five people. If all 6 people in the situation are acquaintances or relatives, the number of volunteers willing to perform similar behavior is up to 47%.

Test results show that humans have at least two systems in mind to assess the level of right and wrong of each behavior. For example, a system prohibits us from harming others to save loved ones, but a system urges us to protect our loved ones at all costs. In many cases the two systems disagree. That's when good people are willing to do bad deeds.

Peter DeScioli, a member of the research team, says that the connection between people in society forces us to set rules of conduct. The process of setting rules in each person takes place in a predictable way. For example, many people consider homosexuality to be a bad phenomenon even though they cannot explain where it is worth being criticized.

"Of course, people can change the moral code they set. For example, when a relative of a good person performs bad behavior and falls into a dangerous situation, good people will only think about protecting. they forget the moral rules, which causes many individuals to cover their loved ones despite knowing they have committed criminal acts such as robbery, rape, murder, ' Fiery Cushman, a researcher of Brown University in the US, comments.