Bad To The Bone.

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Like many before you, you judge humans by the nature of civilization rather than by the relatively peaceful existence of non-civilized humans. Civilization was birthed from exploitation and can only exist with continued exploitation and brainwashing. What you see is the warped version of humans.

My niece (again, three) has shared food without prompting.

in every generation there are a few unique souls born with the kindness genes, these gifted few are responsible for the survival of the rest of the race, they keep things tipped towards civilization.

I don't think that she's all that unique. I certainly was no saint at that age, either, but I had to be carried out of a showing of the movie 'White Fang' because I found the end (where the nice man died, and the dog was sad) so upsetting. If children are selfish, it's because they lack an understanding of what that means to others - not in spite of such an understanding.

Children are born with an instinct to connect with other people, and a desire to not see other people suffer. They have to learn how to do that with experience.

most children automatically want to connect with people, and automatically feel bad when they see someone or something suffering. They just don't know, to start off with, how to make those connections and how to act in ways that don't make others suffer. They have the right feelings to start with, but have to learn the right behaviors to match their intentions. If they grow up somewhere bad, where they're never taught how to behave right, they might end up thinking that it's impossible; even worse, they might grow bitter if their good intentions aren't mirrored back at them.

I have never observed or read of the behavior you mentioned in infants. Normally I have observed infants laughing at slapstick comedy (where the an individual appears to get injured). Could you provide examples to the contrary?

Human infants are basically pre-term fetuses without fully developed brains, so not exactly... but they do cry when they hear others crying, and they do seek eye contact and emotional bonding with their caretakers. They might laugh at 'slapstick comedy,' but their laughter probably doesn't occur when someone actually gets hurt - ie, if the victim isn't smiling and laughing too.

Crying does not always imply sadness. For example, a child who gets into trouble will often cry to get out of trouble, or an infant who wants food will cry till he/she is fed. Laughter can be a complex, so it would probably be hard to tell who is correct without testing.

Do you think that an infant who cries when another cries is 'trying to get out of trouble'? Or that it's crying to be fed, or have his or her diaper changed?

Another point wrt. slapstick comedy: part of what makes it funny is that no one is actually getting hurt. Humor comes in part from the unexpected, the thing that seemed dangerous but isn't actually dangerous; slapstick looks like someone is getting hurt, but they're still smiling even as they say, "Whoooaaahhh!" or "OoooOOOOwwww!" so what seems painful, isn't actually, and the audience knows that. Snowball fights cease to be fun for everybody if one kid starts packing their snowballs with ice or rocks.