My general assumption for the lowest I can expect a person to behave is basically always looking for their own absolute gain, and any attitude towards other people comes secondary to that. So while a person living by this standard wouldn’t donate to charity without some other motive, they would have basically the same answer to something like the trolley problem as anyone else.
Am I wrong thinking of this as a “minimum reasonable behavior”, or is there something people actually gain from the suffering of other people?
This question was born out of seeing how people are being treated by the US government at the moment, but I’m asking about more than just that. People like abusive partners/family, hostile cops, or just bullies in general.
This is exactly it. Hurting things, destroying things, these are pleasurable behaviours. Look at how young children play, how we have to teach them to be gentle with animals until they can develop enough empathy to be trusted.
Empathy is what counterbalances the pleasure of sadism. If you feel bad you hurt something, that’s a pain that is much greater than the pleasure a normal person gains from sadism.
Some people, on purpose or by accident, have shitty empathy.
Yep. Kids are a great example, actually. They do what adults learn to hide. That being said, it’s not universal either. You see tender kids that want to be friends with worms sometimes.