Between panic buying and violent protests, the global pandemic has highlighted some of humankind's worst behaviours.
But Dutch writer and historian Rutger Bregman insists that despite being painted as a selfish species, humans are actually hardwired for kindness.
In his latest book Humankind: A Hopeful History, Bregman argues that we are evolutionarily geared toward cooperation rather than competition. He says history shows that in times of crisis most people start to band together, regardless of their economic status, generational gaps or political positioning.
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A short summary of Humankind: A Hopeful History would be that "most people deep down are pretty decent, but power corrupts", Bregman said.
Bregman said there is a friendliness paradox. Hunter gatherers who were friendly were more likely to survive as they would likely have more offspring and pass on their genes and friends could help them survive in a very harsh environment, he said.
"But we know all know that this yearning to be liked can sometimes stand in the way of justice and of truth seeking. People who want to be liked sometimes don't rise up against injustices and very often progress starts with people who are willing to be uncomfortable or are willing to make other people uncomfortable."
Bregman said one of the questions that the book examines is the strange phenomena of why humans blush and are the only animals to do so.
"Why do we do that? Why has that given us an advantage in our evolutionary history - that we involuntarily give away our feelings to other members of our species?
"And I think actually this power to blush, you know this shame that we can all feel, it helps us to trust one another ... it's one of the secrets of our ability to cooperate on a huge scale."
But he said when people think of political leaders, they often cannot imagine them blushing anymore, which could be part of the problem.
Bregman said for a long time, human history was viewed as a march of progress with people in the past living lives that were, as British philosopher Thomas Hobbs said, "nasty, brutish and short" but then we were supposedly rescued by civilisation.
The latest view from archaeology shows the opposite picture emerging, he said.
"It seems to be the case that, for example the age of warfare really started when we settled down, we became sedentary and we developed agriculture, the age of patriarchy, the age of gross inequalities etc, etc."
Bregman said these phenomena started about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, which is relatively recent if you consider that humans have been around for at least 300,000 years.
Asked why people are so fascinated with stories such as Lord of the Flies and discredited experiments like the Stanford Prison - one which showed that good people could spontaneously turn into monsters - Bregman said part of the reason may be because it is good entertainment.
"It's very hard to write interesting fiction about good people ... it's just hard to tell good stories about people who behave decently right, the good is often pretty boring."
Bregman said the idea that civilisation is only a thin veneer and humans are inherently selfish is deeply embedded in Western culture, although he does not agree with that.
He said he is not trying to argue that humans are "fundamentally good", because history shows that is obviously not the case.
"But what I do think is what we assume in other people is what we get out of them, so our theory of human nature is not just a theory it also can be a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Bregman said for so long, theories have been based on the fact that deep down people are just bad but that has brought out the worst in us.
"On the one hand, yes there is a real shift in science, there's a lot of scientists now who have moved to a more hopeful view of human nature but this could become even more realistic if we believe it."
Bregman said the vast majority of people acted "pro-socially" as at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and drastically altered their lifestyles to stop the virus from spreading further.
The pandemic then turn into a test of endurance which changed things, but a large silent majority of people have still been willing to make sacrifices to stop the spread of Covid, he said.
