Are Humans Inherently Evil?

It's just a fact, infants are entirely selfish when they are born. They don't even know other humans exists so how could they not be? 

Studies have shown that, below the age of 5-7, children are pretty much physically incapable of putting others before themselves in any meaningful way. It's clear how this would come in handy as a self-preservation tactic. Selfish kids survive, and selfish kids ultimately grow up to pass on their genes to their own selfish kids.

Yes, kids do eventually learn to share, but the idea that an altruistic light suddenly flicks on, once you little bundle of joy starts to grow up is a little naive. In fact, the emergence of altruistic behaviour in children is actually just a more advanced version of selfishness. 

In a study by Yale and the University of Chicago, it was observed that kids would only demonstrate unselfish behaviour if they knew that they would get praise and acceptance in return. A group of 5-year-olds were given some stickers and were given the opportunity to share them with a friend. 

In one scenario, the friend could see how many stickers the child was willing to share with them, and in another scenario, this was concealed. It was only when the recipient was able see how generous the child was being, that they shared the most stickers.

The study demonstrates that, even at the age of five, humans exhibit “strategic prosociality”, meaning that we develop the "what's in it for me?" selfish instinct pretty much from the word go.