--- title: Here’s How Humans Learn To Be Selfish description: How humans learn selfishness, how an algorithm could help us thwart ISIS, letting inmates use social media and more. canonical: https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-20T17:46:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:52.139Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Here's How Humans Learn To Be Selfish og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Humans Learn To Be Selfish twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's How Humans Learn To Be Selfish by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 20, 2016 5:46 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 20, 2016 5:46 PM UTC **1\.** [**Humans are born cooperative. Selfishness is learned.**](http://nautil.us/issue/37/currents/selfishness-is-learned) By Matthew Hutson in Nautilus **2\.** [**Have scientists discovered an algorithm that could thwart ISIS?**](http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0617/Have-scientists-discovered-an-algorithm-that-could-thwart-ISIS) By Josh Kenworthy in the Christian Science Monitor **3\.** [**Prisons should let inmates use social media. Here’s why.**](https://www.vice.com/read/why-prisons-should-give-inmates-access-to-social-media) By Seth Ferranti in Vice **4\.** [**Local news isn’t dead. We just need to stop killing it.**](http://www.cjr.org/analysis/local%5Fnews%5Fnewspaper%5Fprint%5Fbusiness%5Fmodel.php) By Jim Brady in the Columbia Journalism Review **5\.** [**Yes, we can make subway stations quieter.**](https://www.wired.com/2016/06/get-ready-quieter-nyc-subway-stations-yes-possible/) By Aarian Marshall in Wired  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/"},"headline":"Here's How Humans Learn To Be Selfish","datePublished":"2016-06-20T17:46:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:52.139Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/","keywords":["Innovation","Psychology","ISIS","News","Prison"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4374812/human-selfishness/","name":"Here's How Humans Learn To Be Selfish"}}]}] ```