Behavior is a consequence of learned and subconscious behavior; choice and automatic response; knowledge or ignorance; the context of the event (in a group or alone, etc); and the amount of will power and self discipline (or lack of) that a person has. If the permutations of all the degrees of all those variables were computed, it would result in an extremely large number of possible outcomes. You seem to be focusing on the issue of choice (free will) and good vs. bad. The question of, "Why do people behave badly?" is something that has probably been pondered by lots of people for a long time. The goal of decreasing bad behavior, may be a factor in why religion exists. (Sin. Need for hope. Morality. Rules. Motivation to do good E.g. you'll go to heaven or hell.) I don't think that the core of the issue here is limited to programmers. If anyone ponders the question of "Why?" deeply enough, sooner or later you'll need to think about whether the human race has the collective ability to control it's own (our) destiny, or are we doomed to factors that are beyond our control? You are appealing to whomever will listen, to take control of their individual behavior. And it works. ( To some degree). If the human race is not able to control it's own destiny, then we obviously need a "savior". The problem with that situation may be that we relinquish our fate into a belief system that ultimately may not save us. I'd rather not "role the dice". (Control or relinquish your influence on the future) Hopefully, anyone reading this doesn't think it's too bizarre, and that this thread really isn't about saving the world, we just want a few programmers to behave a little better on a forum. But, only so many doors open, and only so many opportunities present themself. And I'm not so sure that the topic is being adequately discussed on a larger scale to insure a good outcome. So, please excuse my attempt to turn this into a bigger issue, but I think it's worth the risk.