He talks about two ways that kindness can evolve through natural selection which determines a level of kindness within someone or something. The first is 'kin selection,' where other creatures share your genes and this can be developed through community; a place where everyone is closely related. The second way is called 'reciprocal altruism,' which means that if you're in constant contact with somebody else, it can evolve into a sort of practical kindness where you help them and they help you in return. I can see how both ways can affect how kind someone or something is. A big part of how we act or our habits or beliefs is determined by the environment we grew up in or what we were surrounded by most of our lives. We learn to pick up habits/mannerisms or start talking the same/use the same terms when we hang around the same people a lot.
We have evolved our brains so much and the way it thinks; to look at the smaller things than the bigger picture in life. Dr. Bloom questions why would some humans completely sacrifice their own lives to save a complete stranger. He then goes on to say, "But we're smart enough to have come to the principle of impartiality, some version of the 'golden rule.' Some notion that, from the standpoint of the universe, one person's life is just as valuable as another. From a gut level, an injustice done to me is so much worse than an injustice for people I've never heard of. But when I think about it, I can appreciate that at the level of principles there's no difference. The injustice done far away is just as severe injustice as if it were done to me. It makes us realize that selfishness and parochialness and racism and sexism and all sorts of biases like that are not inevitable." When Dr. Bloom brought this up, it really got me thinking. For most people, a lot of biases like he mentioned can be overridden if it comes down to saving a person's life and that's fascinating to me. I think people like to take on that superhero role because if the roles were reversed they would want someone to help/save them.
You don't have to be directly blood-related or share genes with someone to create a great relationship with someone. Great relationships are something that is nurtured by both people and it depends on them how strong the relationship is. But one act of kindness can go a long way for people.
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