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Bad to be good

Right amount of selfish and selfless

Recent studies showed that people are not only irritated by selfish people, but also those who are exceptionally selfless. In a recent paper published by Craig Parks and Asako Stone titled, "The Desire to Expel Unselfish Members From the Group", being selfless doesn't make you any more popular than selfish people. The Economist explains this idea of too much virtue becoming a vice in the eyes of people.

People are a fussy lot. It's hard to please them. They like those who are like them but a little nicer and prettier and quietly despise those people who are a little meaner and less beautiful than them though the process fuels their own ego and makes them secretly happy as well. But they think the extremely selfish and mean people are irritating and want to be away from them; now we all know they do that to those who are extremely selfless and nice as well. People care about comparisons, they care about relative positions. I've long ago wrote about 'Reference Anxiety' and I explained the dilemma between happiness and equality.

Everyone likes the idea that others are also human, and large deviations from what they themselves are, or have, or experienced, is just unhumanly. That's why it's okay to cheat on your Xbox games and those gamer-saints can just remain holy.