I think it's natural, even healthy, to put your own survival first. In a big earthquake, my first reaction was to get to safety and my immediate second reaction was to make sure everyone else was safe. I think that's how it should be. You can't take care of others if you can't take care of yourself.

Every day life is not so dire for most of us, so in most choices, even when it gets really bleak, we don't have to choose to between ourselves and others, although it certainly seems that most people feel compelled to throw others under a bus or sacrifice themselves far too easily. I think it's always good to look for a way to make sure everyone wins. When it's not I give others a free pass if they look out for themselves. If someone wants to sacrifice themselves for others, that's really nice too, there might be some people I really love that I would sacrifice myself for under certain circumstances, but I don't really enjoy thinking about it.

Rather than judge people based on how they would act in the worst possible scenario, I focus on encouraging them to be decent people in the current situation.