Cynics will find a hard time believing the new study from researchers at Emory University. According to the results of the research conducted by Frans de Waal, humanity isn't nasty at their core.

New studies on animals from primates to elephants to mice show that cooperation is hardwired into the biology of higher animals.

"Humans have a lot of pro-social tendencies," Frans de Waal, a biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Until recently, common scientific thought was firmly on the side of mankind's inherent nastiness. Humanity had only been forced to develop morality in order to function properly in society. This pessimistic view of humanity's base nature isn't true, according to de Waal. In fact human children and other higher animals are actually "moral" creatures because they need to cooperate with each other in order to propagate the species and pass on their genes.

To back up his claims, de Waal provided videos from laboratories which showed two monkeys who were given treats when they exchanged tokens with their human handlers. If one monkey saw that the other monkey was denied a treat that they received, the monkey would start protesting. Another video showed a rat giving up a chocolate to help a fellow rat escape from a trap. Such videos proved that social tendencies like fairness, empathy and consolation occur naturally in the wild. Such sensibilities are not just human traits but are hardwired into brains before humanity ever evolved in this planet.

However, this naturally occurring empathy is harder to come by in regards to other species. De Waal noted that animals studied were more empathetic to animals that they were familiar with from their group. A sense of empathy for people beyond the "in-group" maybe a fragile experiment that only humans are capable of.

"It's experimental for the human species to apply a system [of empathy] intended for [small groups] to the whole world," he admitted.