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> A study by the Common Cause Foundation, due to be published next month, reveals two transformative findings. The first is that a large majority of the 1,000 people they surveyed – 74% – identifies more strongly with unselfish values than with selfish values. This means that they are more interested in helpfulness, honesty, forgiveness and justice than in money, fame, status and power. The second is that a similar majority – 78% – believes others to be more selfish than they really are. In other words, we have made a terrible mistake about other people’s minds.

One explanation: other people are not as selfish as we think they are.

Another explanation: we are more selfish than we say we are.

Or: We are more selfish than we believe or say.

Few people want to believe that they are selfish.

Sadly, the paper hasn't been published and 'identifies more strongly with' is rather vague in definition.

Wealth brings power, power brings entitlement.

Data: Stanford prison and the rigged Monopoly / pretzels experiments.

Qualitatively:

- Dbag taking up the entire level ramp in the parking garage with his Tesla so no one else can pass in the opposite direction.

- Folks allergic to using turn signals, wasting everyone else's time and jeopardizing safety.

- Basically empty winter holiday collection containers in tech areas. (Stingy fuckers.)

- Could bitch on and on, but it's banally common in built-up areas.

Or we're both, depending on what we had for breakfast.

in a way, I suppose a fairly cynical way, doing a lot of social signaling that you are unselfish is somewhat self-interested. The highest-status individuals in tribal[1] settings were like Anthony Quinn's character in "Lawrence of Arabia" - "I am a river to my people!"

[1]The Bedouin are tribal, but extraordinarily sophisticated. They'll outlast us all. It is a culture of great beauty. Will Durant's description of them as the root stock of all civilization is still with me.

The way to attain status is not to pursue it, but to create the conditions in which it pursues you

You can't win :)

I suppose article like this are necessary, but they unfortunately make me cynical. I was blessed with a father who taught me how tricky altruism can be. His message was always "make sure you're doing something that matters" and boy, has that held its water.

Edit: ... not sure how that fixed it, really...

This study fell into the trap of allowing people to judge themselves by their conscious intentions, and others by their actions.

I assume this is advocacy research, because such incompetence is rare, even in the social sciences.

> even in the social sciences.

Was that jab really necessary?

This commentary essay is at least somewhat inconsistent with news reports like one I just saw on the New page here on Hacker News after reading the commentary kindly submitted here. The news report, "Goldman, JPMorgan Said to Fire 30 Analysts for Cheating on Tests"[1] suggests that some highly educated people who have already succeeded in being hired at highly selective financial firms think they cannot be altruistic while advancing their careers.

As other astute comments here have already observed, revealed preference (what people actually do) is a much better signal of human intentions than self-reported preference. People are happy to endorse altruistic values while not necessarily living by them.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-16/goldman-sa...

The problem with studies like this is, ironically, the most self-interested response you can give when somebody asks you the kinds of questions these studies ask, is to misrepresent yourself as being more altruistic than you really are, and misrepresent others as being far less altruistic by comparison.

Put people to decisions that actually have a meaningful impact on their lives, and the lives of others, and you'll see how selfish people really are. Conveniently, you don't even need to conduct a study for this, just observe humanity.

People are definitely selfish. The more interesting question is: is that a bad thing?

the author of this article needs to live in san francisco or los angeles for a week and go back to the drawing board