A recent experiment found the experimental subjects were more likely to sacrifice money to avoid electric shocks to a stranger than for themselves. http://medicalxpress.com/pdf261222914.pdf
A discussion of studies on altruism. http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/Publi ... truism.pdf

Studies linking altruism to underlying structures in the brain

http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2 ... -altruism/
http://m.sciencemag.org/content/305/5688/1254

If thinking of others is being "good " then maybe human beings are more inclined to be good...Cooperation (mostly) trumps selfishness

freeman3 wrote:If thinking of others is being "good " then maybe human beings are more inclined to be good...Cooperation (mostly) trumps selfishness

Yep. We are a tribal / pack animal. That doesn't make us like ants, but it means that individualism is not really part of our species' history.

So we have developed and been selected on traits that assist in group situations. Altruism is one of those traits.