Balance between Generosity and Greed

Many of us often wonder what makes people greedy.  When we have the opportunity to be generous we usually feel so much better.  Why is that we often witness greed to the point of being inconsiderate of other people's hardships?
I grew up in a family where generosity was of highly important value.  Here is my favorite story from my mother's childhood in Mashhad.  They were six kids living in a small house.  My mother got up one night and saw that her mom was sitting at the sewing machine and making clothes.  She asked her why she is staying up and working so late.  Her answer was:  We are not rich enough to give money to the poor.  What I can do for them is make clothes for their children.
This is the way I was brought up:  Being generous toward the more unfortunate people.  It is a basic value of our common humanity.
My education and research career has taught me that all humans (all living things in fact) are made of the same basic molecules, same genetic material.  We survive using the same biochemical pathways.  Research continuously shows us the complex processes in fine balance in our bodies.  In the past decade great advances have been made in brain research, mapping areas of the brain active in various activities.  These brain studies together with psychological experiments slowly begin to reveal the reasons for our behavior.

One study had this conclusion: “Greed, Not Generosity, More Likely to Be ‘Paid Forward’”

Look up: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2012/12/greed-generosity.aspx

Here is a description of one experiment:

In one experiment, researchers recruited 100 people from subway stations and tourist areas in Cambridge, Mass., to play an economic game. They told participants that someone had split $6 with them and then gave them an envelope that contained the entire $6 for a generous split, $3 for an equal split, or nothing for a greedy split. The participants then received an additional $6 that they could split in another envelope with a future recipient, essentially paying it forward.

Receiving a generous split didn’t prompt any greater generosity than receiving equal treatment, but people who received nothing in the first envelope were more likely to put little or nothing in the second envelope, depriving future recipients because of the greed they had experienced. The average amount paid forward by participants who received a greedy split was $1.32, well below an equal split of $3.

The results confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that greed would prevail because negative stimuli have more powerful effects on thoughts and actions than positive stimuli. Focusing on the negative may cause unhappiness, but it makes sense as an evolutionary survival skill. “If there is a tiger nearby, you really have to take notice or you’ll get eaten,” he said. “If there is a beautiful sunset or delicious food, it’s not a life-or-death situation.”

A simple story I heard from a kinder garden teacher describing 3-4 years old kids.  They are given some toys or some food.  The kids instinctive reaction is to check how exactly the toys were distributed; they have to make sure no one got any more than they did.  They would bitterly complain if someone got one millimeter extra! 

As much as we think that we have modern advanced societies, the basic values of compassion and humanity still need to be taught.  Humans are still being born with strong “Fight or Flight” instincts.  The hope is that with continuous education we will reform future generations to the point where the gene pool will progress away from these survival instincts.  This is the process of achieving the fine balance.

The regions in the brain that light up when we are curious: