TEDSalon 2009 Compassion
Robert Wright: The evolution of compassion
Filmed:
Readability: 4.3
292,619 views
Robert Wright uses evolutionary biology and game theory to explain why we appreciate the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..."), why we sometimes ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the near future, we might all have the compassion to follow it.
Robert Wright - Journalist, philosopher
The best-selling author of "Nonzero," "The Moral Animal" and "The Evolution of God," Robert Wright draws on his wide-ranging knowledge of science, religion, psychology, history and politics to figure out what makes humanity tick -- and what makes us moral. Full bio
The best-selling author of "Nonzero," "The Moral Animal" and "The Evolution of God," Robert Wright draws on his wide-ranging knowledge of science, religion, psychology, history and politics to figure out what makes humanity tick -- and what makes us moral. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
I'm going to talk about compassion and the golden rule
0
1000
4000
00:17
from a secular perspective and even from a kind of scientific perspective.
1
5000
6000
00:23
I'm going to try to give you a little bit of a natural history
2
11000
3000
00:26
of compassion and the golden rule.
3
14000
2000
00:28
So, I'm going to be sometimes using kind of clinical language,
4
16000
5000
00:33
and so it's not going to sound as warm and fuzzy
5
21000
2000
00:35
as your average compassion talk.
6
23000
2000
00:37
I want to warn you about that.
7
25000
3000
00:40
So, I do want to say, at the outset, that I think compassion's great.
8
28000
4000
00:44
The golden rule is great. I'm a big supporter of both.
9
32000
3000
00:47
And I think it's great that
10
35000
2000
00:49
the leaders of the religions of the world
11
37000
3000
00:52
are affirming compassion and the golden rule as fundamental principles
12
40000
5000
00:57
that are integral to their faiths.
13
45000
3000
01:00
At the same time, I think religions don't deserve all the credit.
14
48000
3000
01:03
I think nature gave them a helping hand here.
15
51000
4000
01:07
I'm going to argue tonight that compassion and the golden rule
16
55000
5000
01:12
are, in a certain sense, built into human nature.
17
60000
3000
01:15
But I'm also going to argue
18
63000
2000
01:17
that once you understand the sense in which they are built into human nature,
19
65000
4000
01:21
you realize that just affirming compassion,
20
69000
4000
01:25
and affirming the golden rule, is really not enough.
21
73000
3000
01:28
There's a lot of work to be done after that.
22
76000
3000
01:31
OK so, a quick natural history, first of compassion.
23
79000
5000
01:36
In the beginning, there was compassion,
24
84000
3000
01:39
and I mean not just when human beings first showed up,
25
87000
3000
01:42
but actually even before that.
26
90000
2000
01:44
I think it's probably the case that, in the human evolutionary lineage,
27
92000
4000
01:48
even before there were homo sapiens,
28
96000
3000
01:51
feelings like compassion and love and sympathy
29
99000
2000
01:53
had earned their way into the gene pool,
30
101000
4000
01:57
and biologists have a pretty clear idea of how this first happened.
31
105000
3000
02:00
It happened through a principle known as kin selection.
32
108000
4000
02:04
And the basic idea of kin selection is that,
33
112000
6000
02:10
if an animal feels compassion for a close relative,
34
118000
3000
02:13
and this compassion leads the animal to help the relative,
35
121000
4000
02:17
then, in the end, the compassion actually winds up helping the genes
36
125000
5000
02:22
underlying the compassion itself.
37
130000
3000
02:25
So, from a biologist's point of view, compassion is actually
38
133000
4000
02:29
a gene's way of helping itself. OK.
39
137000
4000
02:33
I warned you this was not going to be very warm and fuzzy.
40
141000
4000
02:37
I'll get there -- I hope to get a little fuzzier.
41
145000
3000
02:40
This doesn't bother me so much,
42
148000
2000
02:42
that the underlying Darwinian rationale of compassion
43
150000
4000
02:46
is kind of self-serving at the genetic level.
44
154000
2000
02:48
Actually, I think the bad news about kin selection
45
156000
3000
02:51
is just that it means that this kind of compassion
46
159000
4000
02:55
is naturally deployed only within the family.
47
163000
3000
02:58
That's the bad news. The good news is compassion is natural.
48
166000
3000
03:01
The bad news is that this kin selected compassion
49
169000
3000
03:04
is naturally confined to the family.
50
172000
2000
03:06
Now, there's more good news that came along later in evolution,
51
174000
4000
03:10
a second kind of evolutionary logic.
52
178000
3000
03:13
Biologists call that "reciprocal altruism." OK.
53
181000
3000
03:16
And there, the basic idea is that
54
184000
3000
03:19
compassion leads you to do good things for people who then will return the favor.
55
187000
8000
03:27
Again, I know this is not as inspiring a notion of compassion
56
195000
5000
03:32
as you may have heard in the past,
57
200000
2000
03:34
but from a biologist's point of view, this reciprocal altruism kind of compassion
58
202000
5000
03:39
is ultimately self-serving too.
59
207000
3000
03:42
It's not that people think that, when they feel the compassion.
60
210000
2000
03:44
It's not consciously self-serving, but to a biologist, that's the logic.
61
212000
5000
03:49
And so, you wind up most easily extending compassion to friends and allies.
62
217000
6000
03:55
I'm sure a lot of you, if a close friend has something really terrible happen to them,
63
223000
6000
04:01
you feel really bad.
64
229000
2000
04:03
But if you read in the newspaper
65
231000
1000
04:04
that something really horrible happened to somebody you've never heard of,
66
232000
3000
04:07
you can probably live with that.
67
235000
2000
04:09
That's just human nature.
68
237000
2000
04:11
So, it's another good news/bad news story.
69
239000
2000
04:13
It's good that compassion was extended beyond the family
70
241000
2000
04:15
by this kind of evolutionary logic.
71
243000
2000
04:17
The bad news is this doesn't bring us universal compassion by itself.
72
245000
5000
04:22
So, there's still work to be done.
73
250000
2000
04:24
Now, there's one other result of this dynamic called reciprocal altruism,
74
252000
5000
04:29
which I think is kind of good news,
75
257000
2000
04:31
which is that the way that this is played out in the human species,
76
259000
4000
04:35
it has given people an intuitive appreciation of the golden rule.
77
263000
4000
04:39
I don't quite mean that the golden rule itself is written in our genes,
78
267000
4000
04:43
but you can go to a hunter gatherer society
79
271000
4000
04:47
that has had no exposure to any of the great religious traditions,
80
275000
3000
04:50
no exposure to ethical philosophy,
81
278000
2000
04:52
and you'll find, if you spend time with these people,
82
280000
2000
04:54
that, basically, they believe that one good turn deserves another,
83
282000
3000
04:57
and that bad deeds should be punished.
84
285000
2000
04:59
And evolutionary psychologists think that these intuitions have a basis in the genes.
85
287000
6000
05:05
So, they do understand that if you want to be treated well,
86
293000
4000
05:09
you treat other people well.
87
297000
2000
05:11
And it's good to treat other people well.
88
299000
2000
05:13
That's close to being a kind of built-in intuition.
89
301000
4000
05:17
So, that's good news. Now, if you've been paying attention,
90
305000
3000
05:20
you're probably anticipating that there's bad news here;
91
308000
3000
05:23
we still aren't to universal love,
92
311000
2000
05:25
and it's true because, although an appreciation of the golden rule is natural,
93
313000
5000
05:30
it's also natural to carve out exceptions to the golden rule.
94
318000
5000
05:35
I mean, for example, none of us, probably, want to go to prison,
95
323000
4000
05:39
but we all think that there are some people who should go to prison. Right?
96
327000
3000
05:42
So, we think we should treat them differently than we would want to be treated.
97
330000
4000
05:46
Now, we have a rationale for that.
98
334000
2000
05:48
We say they did these bad things that make it just that they should go to prison.
99
336000
5000
05:53
None of us really extends the golden rule in truly diffuse and universal fashion.
100
341000
4000
05:57
We have the capacity to carve out exceptions,
101
345000
3000
06:00
put people in a special category.
102
348000
2000
06:02
And the problem is that -- although in the case of sending people to prison,
103
350000
4000
06:06
you have this impartial judiciary
104
354000
3000
06:09
determining who gets excluded from the golden rule --
105
357000
4000
06:13
that in everyday life, the way we all make these decisions
106
361000
4000
06:17
about who we're not going to extend the golden rule to,
107
365000
3000
06:20
is we use a much rougher and readier formula.
108
368000
3000
06:23
Basically it's just like, if you're my enemy, if you're my rival --
109
371000
4000
06:27
if you're not my friend, if you're not in my family --
110
375000
2000
06:29
I'm much less inclined to apply the golden rule to you.
111
377000
5000
06:34
We all do that,
112
382000
2000
06:36
and you see it all over the world.
113
384000
3000
06:39
You see it in the Middle East:
114
387000
3000
06:42
people who, from Gaza, are firing missiles at Israel.
115
390000
3000
06:45
They wouldn't want to have missiles fired at them, but they say,
116
393000
2000
06:47
"Well, but the Israelis, or some of them have done things
117
395000
2000
06:49
that put them in a special category."
118
397000
2000
06:51
The Israelis would not want to have an economic blockade imposed on them,
119
399000
3000
06:54
but they impose one on Gaza, and they say,
120
402000
2000
06:56
"Well, the Palestinians, or some of them, have brought this on themselves."
121
404000
3000
06:59
So, it's these exclusions to the golden rule that amount to a lot of the world's trouble.
122
407000
8000
07:07
And it's natural to do that.
123
415000
3000
07:10
So, the fact that the golden rule is in some sense built in to us
124
418000
3000
07:13
is not, by itself, going to bring us universal love.
125
421000
6000
07:19
It's not going to save the world.
126
427000
2000
07:21
Now, there's one piece of good news I have that may save the world. Okay.
127
429000
5000
07:26
Are you on the edges of your seats here?
128
434000
3000
07:29
Good, because before I tell you about that good news,
129
437000
2000
07:31
I'm going to have to take a little excursion through some academic terrain.
130
439000
5000
07:36
So, I hope I've got your attention with this promise of good news
131
444000
3000
07:39
that may save the world.
132
447000
3000
07:42
It's this non-zero-sumness stuff you just heard a little bit about.
133
450000
3000
07:45
It's just a quick introduction to game theory.
134
453000
3000
07:48
This won't hurt. Okay.
135
456000
2000
07:50
It's about zero-sum and non-zero-sum games.
136
458000
2000
07:52
If you ask what kind of a situation
137
460000
4000
07:56
is conducive to people becoming friends and allies,
138
464000
3000
07:59
the technical answer is a non-zero-sum situation.
139
467000
3000
08:02
And if you ask what kind of situation
140
470000
2000
08:04
is conducive to people defining people as enemies,
141
472000
2000
08:06
it's a zero-sum situation.
142
474000
2000
08:08
So, what do those terms mean?
143
476000
2000
08:10
Basically, a zero-sum game is the kind you're used to in sports,
144
478000
3000
08:13
where there's a winner and a loser.
145
481000
2000
08:15
So, their fortunes add up to zero.
146
483000
3000
08:18
So, in tennis, every point is either good for you and bad for the other person,
147
486000
5000
08:23
or good for them, bad for you.
148
491000
2000
08:25
Either way, your fortunes add up to zero. That's a zero-sum game.
149
493000
3000
08:28
Now, if you're playing doubles,
150
496000
2000
08:30
then the person on your side of the net
151
498000
2000
08:32
is in a non-zero-sum relationship with you,
152
500000
3000
08:35
because every point is either good for both of you -- positive, win-win --
153
503000
3000
08:38
or bad for both of you, it's lose-lose.
154
506000
2000
08:40
That's a non-zero-sum game.
155
508000
2000
08:42
And in real life, there are lots of non-zero-sum games.
156
510000
3000
08:45
In the realm of economics, say, if you buy something:
157
513000
3000
08:48
that means you'd rather have the merchandise than the money,
158
516000
3000
08:51
but the merchant would rather have the money than the merchandise.
159
519000
3000
08:54
You both feel you've won.
160
522000
2000
08:56
In a war, two allies are playing a non-zero-sum game.
161
524000
3000
08:59
It's going to either be win-win or lose-lose for them.
162
527000
3000
09:02
So, there are lots of non-zero-sum games in real life.
163
530000
7000
09:09
And you could basically reformulate what I said earlier,
164
537000
4000
09:13
about how compassion is deployed and the golden rule is deployed,
165
541000
3000
09:16
by just saying, well, compassion most naturally flows along non-zero-sum channels
166
544000
6000
09:22
where people perceive themselves as being in a potentially win-win situation
167
550000
3000
09:25
with some of their friends or allies.
168
553000
3000
09:28
The deployment of the golden rule
169
556000
2000
09:30
most naturally happens along these non-zero-sum channels.
170
558000
3000
09:33
So, kind of webs of non-zero-sumness
171
561000
2000
09:35
are where you would expect compassion and the golden rule
172
563000
4000
09:39
to kind of work their magic.
173
567000
2000
09:41
With zero-sum channels you would expect something else.
174
569000
2000
09:43
Okay. So, now you're ready for the good news that I said might save the world.
175
571000
4000
09:47
And now I can admit that it might not too,
176
575000
3000
09:50
now that I've held your attention for three minutes of technical stuff.
177
578000
6000
09:56
But it may. And the good news is that history
178
584000
5000
10:01
has naturally expanded these webs of non-zero-sumness,
179
589000
4000
10:05
these webs that can be these channels for compassion.
180
593000
4000
10:09
You can go back all the way to the stone age:
181
597000
3000
10:12
technological evolution -- roads, the wheel, writing,
182
600000
8000
10:20
a lot of transportation and communication technologies --
183
608000
3000
10:23
has just inexorably made it so that more people
184
611000
3000
10:26
can be in more non-zero-sum relationships
185
614000
3000
10:29
with more and more people at greater and greater distances.
186
617000
3000
10:32
That's the story of civilization.
187
620000
3000
10:35
It's why social organization has grown from the hunter-gatherer village
188
623000
5000
10:40
to the ancient state, the empire, and now here we are in a globalized world.
189
628000
3000
10:43
And the story of globalization is largely a story of non-zero-sumness.
190
631000
4000
10:47
You've probably heard the term "interdependence"
191
635000
2000
10:49
applied to the modern world. Well, that's just another term for non-zero-sum.
192
637000
4000
10:53
If your fortunes are interdependent with somebody,
193
641000
3000
10:56
then you live in a non-zero-sum relationship with them.
194
644000
3000
10:59
And you see this all the time in the modern world.
195
647000
2000
11:01
You saw it with the recent economic crash,
196
649000
2000
11:03
where bad things happen in the economy --
197
651000
3000
11:06
bad for everybody, for much of the world.
198
654000
3000
11:09
Good things happen, and it's good for much of the world.
199
657000
3000
11:12
And, you know, I'm happy to say, I think there's really evidence
200
660000
3000
11:15
that this non-zero-sum kind of connection
201
663000
3000
11:18
can expand the moral compass.
202
666000
3000
11:21
I mean, if you look at the American attitudes
203
669000
3000
11:24
toward Japanese during World War II --
204
672000
4000
11:28
look at the depictions of Japanese
205
676000
2000
11:30
in the American media as just about subhuman,
206
678000
2000
11:32
and look at the fact that we dropped atomic bombs,
207
680000
2000
11:34
really without giving it much of a thought --
208
682000
3000
11:37
and you compare that to the attitude now,
209
685000
2000
11:39
I think part of that is due to a kind of economic interdependence.
210
687000
3000
11:42
Any form of interdependence, or non-zero-sum relationship
211
690000
3000
11:45
forces you to acknowledge the humanity of people.
212
693000
3000
11:48
So, I think that's good.
213
696000
2000
11:50
And the world is full of non-zero-sum dynamics.
214
698000
3000
11:53
Environmental problems, in many ways, put us all in the same boat.
215
701000
4000
11:57
And there are non-zero-sum relationships that maybe people aren't aware of.
216
705000
5000
12:02
For example, probably a lot of American Christians
217
710000
4000
12:06
don't think of themselves as being in a non-zero-sum relationship
218
714000
4000
12:10
with Muslims halfway around the world,
219
718000
2000
12:12
but they really are, because if these Muslims become happier and happier
220
720000
5000
12:17
with their place in the world and feel that they have a place in it,
221
725000
3000
12:20
that's good for Americans, because there will be fewer terrorists
222
728000
3000
12:23
to threaten American security.
223
731000
2000
12:25
If they get less and less happy, that will be bad for Americans.
224
733000
4000
12:29
So, there's plenty of non-zero-sumness.
225
737000
3000
12:32
And so, the question is: If there's so much non-zero-sumness,
226
740000
5000
12:37
why has the world not yet been suffused in love, peace, and understanding?
227
745000
4000
12:41
The answer's complicated. It's the occasion for a whole other talk.
228
749000
3000
12:44
Certainly, a couple of things are that,
229
752000
4000
12:48
first of all, there are a lot of zero-sum situations in the world.
230
756000
4000
12:52
And also, sometimes people don't recognize
231
760000
4000
12:56
the non-zero-sum dynamics in the world.
232
764000
5000
13:01
In both of these areas,
233
769000
2000
13:03
I think politicians can play a role.
234
771000
3000
13:06
This isn't only about religion.
235
774000
2000
13:08
I think politicians can help foster non-zero-sum relationships,
236
776000
5000
13:13
Economic engagement is generally better than blockades and so on,
237
781000
3000
13:16
in this regard.
238
784000
2000
13:18
And politicians can be aware, and should be aware that,
239
786000
3000
13:21
when people around the world are looking at them,
240
789000
2000
13:23
are looking at their nation
241
791000
2000
13:25
and picking up their cues
242
793000
2000
13:27
for whether they are in a zero-sum or a non-zero-sum relationship with a nation --
243
795000
4000
13:31
like, say, America, or any other nation --
244
799000
3000
13:34
human psychology is such that they use cues like:
245
802000
3000
13:37
Do we feel we're being respected?
246
805000
2000
13:39
Because, you know, historically, if you're not being respected,
247
807000
3000
13:42
you're probably not going to wind up in a non-zero-sum,
248
810000
3000
13:45
mutually profitable relationship with people.
249
813000
3000
13:48
So, we need to be aware of what kind of signals we're sending out.
250
816000
5000
13:53
And some of this, again, is in the realm of political work.
251
821000
5000
13:58
If there's one thing I can encourage everyone to do,
252
826000
2000
14:00
politicians, religious leaders, and us,
253
828000
3000
14:03
it would be what I call "expanding the moral imagination" --
254
831000
5000
14:08
that is to say, your ability to put yourself in the shoes
255
836000
3000
14:11
of people in very different circumstances.
256
839000
3000
14:14
This is not the same as compassion,
257
842000
2000
14:16
but it's conducive to compassion. It opens the channels for compassion.
258
844000
6000
14:22
And I'm afraid we have another good news/bad news story,
259
850000
3000
14:25
which is that the moral imagination is part of human nature.
260
853000
3000
14:28
That's good, but again we tend to deploy it selectively.
261
856000
5000
14:33
Once we define somebody as an enemy,
262
861000
2000
14:35
we have trouble putting ourselves in their shoes, just naturally.
263
863000
5000
14:40
So, if you want to take a particularly hard case for an American:
264
868000
4000
14:44
somebody in Iran who is burning an American flag, and you see them on TV.
265
872000
4000
14:48
Well, the average American is going to resist
266
876000
3000
14:51
the moral exercise of putting themselves in that person's head
267
879000
4000
14:55
and is going to resist the idea that they have much in common with that person.
268
883000
3000
14:58
And if you tell them, "Well, they think America disrespects them
269
886000
4000
15:02
and even wants to dominate them, and they hate America.
270
890000
3000
15:05
Has there ever been somebody who disrespected you so much
271
893000
2000
15:07
that you kind of hated them briefly"?
272
895000
2000
15:09
You know, they'll resist that comparison and that's natural, that's human.
273
897000
3000
15:12
And, similarly, the person in Iran:
274
900000
2000
15:14
when you try to humanize somebody in America who said that Islam is evil,
275
902000
4000
15:18
they'll have trouble with that.
276
906000
2000
15:20
So, it's a very difficult thing to get people to expand the moral imagination
277
908000
5000
15:25
to a place it doesn't naturally go.
278
913000
3000
15:28
I think it's worth the trouble because,
279
916000
3000
15:31
again, it just helps us to understand.
280
919000
2000
15:33
If you want to reduce the number of people who are burning flags,
281
921000
2000
15:35
it helps to understand what makes them do it.
282
923000
2000
15:37
And I think it's good moral exercise.
283
925000
3000
15:40
I would say here is where religious leaders come in,
284
928000
3000
15:43
because religious leaders are good at reframing issues for people,
285
931000
7000
15:50
at harnessing the emotional centers of the brain
286
938000
2000
15:52
to get people to alter their awareness and reframe the way they think.
287
940000
5000
15:57
I mean, religious leaders are kind of in the inspiration business.
288
945000
4000
16:01
It's their great calling right now,
289
949000
2000
16:03
to get people all around the world better at expanding their moral imaginations,
290
951000
4000
16:07
appreciating that in so many ways they're in the same boat.
291
955000
4000
16:11
I would just sum up the way things look, at least from this secular perspective,
292
959000
6000
16:17
as far as compassion and the golden rule go,
293
965000
4000
16:21
by saying that it's good news that compassion and the golden rule
294
969000
6000
16:27
are in some sense built into human nature.
295
975000
5000
16:32
It's unfortunate that they tend to be selectively deployed.
296
980000
5000
16:37
And it's going to take real work to change that.
297
985000
4000
16:41
But, nobody ever said that doing God's work was going to be easy. Thanks.
298
989000
5000
16:46
(Applause)
299
994000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robert Wright - Journalist, philosopherThe best-selling author of "Nonzero," "The Moral Animal" and "The Evolution of God," Robert Wright draws on his wide-ranging knowledge of science, religion, psychology, history and politics to figure out what makes humanity tick -- and what makes us moral.
Why you should listen
Author Robert Wright thinks the crises the human species now faces are moral in nature, and that our salvation lies in the intelligent pursuit of self-interest. In his book Nonzero, Wright argues that life depends on a non-zero-sum dynamic. While a zero-sum game depends on a winner and loser, all parties in a non-zero-sum game win or lose together, so players will more likely survive if they cooperate. This points to an optimistic future of ultimate cooperation among humans -- if we recognize the game.
Well-respected for his erudition and original thinking (Bill Clinton hailed him as a genius), Wright draws from multiple disciplines -- including science, religion, history and politics -- in his search for big-picture perspectives on today's problems, particularly terrorism, while offering guarded hope for where we might be headed. A Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Wright also hosts an interview series with celebrated thinkers at Meaningoflifetv.com.
Wright's newest book, The Evolution of God, explores the history of the idea of God in the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
Robert Wright | Speaker | TED.com