Thanks for all the responses! You rock!

As for me, I (perhaps foolishly) take the approach of being overly kind and trusting, even when I probably shouldn't. The rebel in me chalks it up as an act of defiance, to be kind in an unkind world. And yeah, this mind set has left me emotionally hurt a time or two, but it still warms my heart to know that I was kind and generous, nonetheless.

Unfortunately I seem to always trust much more than I should, and end up more often than I like, finding that the one I've trusted was not worthy of the trust. Notwithstanding, I find that it also works the other way, I have had the situation where I've consciously thought will I trust this person, and against my judgement at the time gone ahead and trusted only to have been pleasantly surprised and glad that I did.

There seems to be more and more evidence that we are a greedy, selfish, untrustworthy set of beings. I don't know - I may be stupid but I just keep plodding forward with faith in my fellow humans and that my altruistic actions may stimulate same in at least some others. I personally believe that much of what we are seeing today is based in a dawning awareness of human overpopulation - that dawning may be too little too late

Between my wife and myself, we've lost a wallet, keys, or a bag six times. The only thing that didn't get returned to us was one set of keys and I believe it may have slid into a storm drain. I've found stuff from time to time and of course managed to return them. I see people offer to carry groceries for old people, give up subway seats, all that stuff. We are social animals and I believe the default mode is to help other people.

I used to be more trusting and give most people the benefit of the doubt.

Now I'm more skeptical (not quite cynical yet) about what I see or hear. It seems things that could be somewhat trusted in the past, like the news, or people, are now so biased one way or another it's hard to know what to believe.

I'm definitely a skeptic now. I think it might be something that just comes along with age (wisdom). Or simply getting burned one too many times.

I swing from faith/trust in doing the right thing to outright condemnation... and generally am rather cynical. It boggles my mind how some people can be so dense about reality and not willing to take care of the earth and each other. On a bad day, I think we all deserve whatever is going to happen to us. Then I meet phenomenal people who are kind, considerate and loving and work hard to create a sustainable future and I have hope again.
I chose to NOT have children for several reasons, the biggest one fear for their future on this planet and I am amazed how easily people with children deny the problems we as a species are/have creating/ed that will affect them.

I've come to realize that in all walks of life, people are generally average. There's always people who are exceptional, and also people who are sub-par in every way, but both of those are in the minority. My approach is to be more skeptical when it comes to humanity,and also to look at how people act in a group- do they go w/the status quo, or do they stand out in some way?

Quite often, I am embarrassed to be a human, but I try to remain optimistic. The biggest problem is the definition of humanity in certain contexts, like, humanity is destroying this planet. It is a minority of humans doing this, but 'we' get the blame. I am cynical of the minority, who control everything, both skeptical and hopeful of the rest of us.

Human beings are human beings. We are capable of much good, and much evil. We are also capable of rationalizing greed or destructive action. To deter inappropriate action, we must always have public scrutiny and deterrents for destructive actions.

I am both skeptical and cynical. I think the majority of humanity is too stupid to understand certain broad concepts relating to well being and rights, or is too self absorbed to care about others. I think most people will do right when they know they are being watched and could face ridicule, but left to their own devices, will act selfishly. Overall, humanity is doomed.

I don't trust humanity, that said i force myself to do the right thing. as the more people whodo make the world a more liveable place.

there is always an ethically right thing to do, it may not be the correct thing to do, (as in resulting in the best out come) but there's always a right thing to do (e.g. telling the whole truth) i think more people need to know that.

My faith in humanity is definitely not very high right now. I’m sure that has a lot to do with all the negative things we see and hear about in the media. For every positive story we hear there are 10 discouraging.

I’ve always been a cynical person. I would like to be that optimistic, sunshine, and rainbows kind of person, but that’s not me. I’m a happy person but I always have my bullshit meter on.

I am skeptical of so much in life, but I trust people too readily and I have been disappointed countless times. I'm really not sure what to do about it????? I can't be anything else but be myself. Person after person claims that they want to meet someone and then they put up walls. I keep hoping to meet genuine people, and I have as friends, but I am constantly disappointed. It is very frustrating because I have such good friends who I trust. I assume others will be open and honest, and that is where I constantly make my mistake. Something happened on the site tonight which really surprised me, concerning another person's reaction, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Of course I would never give specifics as far as identifying anyone. Just disappointed in a reaction that I did not expect from someone showing interest, that's all.