Intrinsic Helpfulness?

ABC News: Study Shows Babies Try to Help

This study is really fascinating. Could it be that many higher ethical values are genetically coded? Or perhaps a natural disposition towards helping? There's some serious holes in the study when it comes to what kids at 18 months might "believe" or "understand" or "think". Or more doubtfully, what a chimpanzi might "believe" or "understand" or "think". But, it is interestng to consider that in our largely pure state, we all intrinsically (innocently) feel the need to help another person who seems to need us. I guess it takes several more years for experience to dull that urge.

In another article about this study they seem to claim that Chimpanzis might share this drive to help (reviving the debate between human-like apes and ape-like humans in evolutionary theory.) However, this ABC version cautions:

It's a creative study that shows chimps may display humanlike helpfulness when they can grasp the person's goal, University of California, Los Angeles, anthropologist Joan Silk wrote in an accompanying review. Just don't assume they help for the reasons of empathy that motivated the babies, she cautioned.