Good or evil? What defines the true nature of humankind? How can an advanced
civilization like ours have the intelligence and determination to achieve space travel, perform
transplant surgeries, invent the internet, and still be so cruel, selfish, and violent? Our history
contains on one side terrible wars, prejudice, intolerance, racism and indifference, and on the other side amazing acts of kindness, empathy, tolerance, sacrifice, and generosity. One of the biggest mysteries of the human species is the answer to the question: what influences and determines our behavior? What makes us choose kindness or cruelty?
The human brain is the most intriguing, amazing, and complex “machine” that controls our
body, our emotions and behavior. Why do people make the choices they do? Behavioral
neuroscience is such a fascinating field. Studying how the brain influences behavior and finding
therapies that could help people lead better lives and make better choices is not only interesting, but it can also have a major impact on our society as well.
Imagine a world without violence, cruelty, and more empathy! How many more scientific
discoveries would we be capable of, and how many more acts of kindness could we commit if we focused our energy on being good people and caring more about each other?
Since the scientists discovered neuroplasticity, we know that our brain can change.
Therefore, our behaviors and choices can also change. Dr. IsHak, professor of psychiatry at
Cedars-Sinai hospital, conducted extensive research that demonstrated that acting with kindness can make our body release hormones that influence our mood and wellbeing, like oxytocin (“the love hormone”) and serotonin (“the feel-good” hormone) and dopamine (“the happy hormone”). So maybe the more good deeds we do in the world, the kinder and more empathic we can become.
Acts of kindness are already incorporated in some forms of psychotherapy.
An extensive scientific literature review conducted at Stanford University (Center for
Compassion and Altruism Research and Education – CCARE) concludes that patients treated with kindness had better outcomes, such as faster healing of wounds, reduced pain, anxiety and shorter hospital stays (Doty). Therefore, institutionalizing more compassionate and kinder practices in hospitals and clinics, a free remedy can have a significant positive impact on healthcare. The famous Hippocratic Oath, an ancient Greek document that lasted 2500 years and was adopted by the medical profession as a guide of conduct contains compassion as one of its principles: “warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug” (Tyson).
Researchers from the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds of the University of
Wisconsin–Madison have already demonstrated that adults can be trained in compassion, and
therefore they can develop greater altruistic behavior (Weng).
Is it a dream or a future possible reality to hope that we could become more compassionate
and work together to address the main global crises of our world? We face food insecurity and
malnutrition (excess food in some countries while there is starvation in others), climate change, child labor and trafficking. Acts of violence account for about 1.4 million deaths worldwide annually. We are starting to understand already the neurobiological susceptibility of some people who commit acts of aggression. Scientific research shows that stimulation of the prefrontal cortex can reduce the intentions to commit aggression and increase the understanding of the moral wrongfulness of violence. Understanding the etiology of aggression and developing new treatments can have a significant impact on this major public health problem (Choy).
The “brain switch” for courage (brain circuits responsible for the decision to fight or flee
in the face of danger) was discovered by scientists led by Professor Andrew Huberman from
Stanford University School of Medicine (Goldman). Imagine a world with brave people, doing
what’s right despite the risks. Courage is the key to compassion, to a better world, the hope to fight to make today better than yesterday despite the possibility of failure. Courage is finding the power and confidence within us to fulfill our goals and become who we are meant to be, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem.
If we could fully control and understand our emotions, we could open our minds and hearts
to all people around us and act with more compassion and understanding. I believe we all should try to bring our light to the world and share it with other people. We should also seek the light in others no matter how negative they might be or act sometime and help them discover their own light and chose a life of kindness and empathy.
I believe we all have the power and the responsibility to make a difference. There are so
many things in the world that can be improved and so much work to be done. Our generation has the potential and the knowledge to find innovative ideas, and solutions to these problems.
We find ourselves at a unique moment in history: we are better educated than ever; our life
expectancy has risen significantly; childhood mortality has decreased; science, medicine and
technology have never been so advanced. Over the last 150 years, since the discovery of the
printing press, and the 1879 invention of the light bulb, humanity has made more progress than in all its previous existence. Still, pressing problems like global warming, political instability, food insecurity, terrorism, refugee crises, school and race-related shootings threaten the safety of our global family.
We live in a time and place where we can, and we should do more than ever before.
No matter how small, the positive or negative choices we make every day have a significant
impact on our planet and on our society. It isn’t only our own fate and future that depends on our decisions, but also the life of our family, and of the people we encounter and interact with. This is especially true nowadays, in the social media time we live in, when we are more connected than ever. The fate of future generations will be impacted by the choices we make every day. The world’s population has now reached 8 billion people, so it’s no wonder we see ourselves as insignificant, like grains of sand; but each one of us represents a story of multiple choices and extraordinary potential, and collectively we hold the power to make this world better for the next generations.
The real question worth asking ourselves is: What will we choose: be good or evil; be
helpful or indifferent; selfless, or selfish? Every new day we have another chance to decide how we will act in the world; we have indeed “the power of choice” … What will we do with it?