Basic Trope: Humans are morally upright compared to other sapient species.
- Straight: The typical human specimen, by the standards of fellow sophonts, is generally pleasant to be around, and has a compulsion to do good, sometimes For Great Justice or For Happiness.
- Exaggerated: Humans are Always Lawful Good all-loving heroes and incorruptibly pure who wouldn't so much as harm a fly, the very concept of evil doesn't exist on their planets, which are of course utopian No Poverty sugar bowls populated by
purity sues living in a Shining City. - Downplayed: Humans may be flawed, but they always strive to be their best selves.
- Justified:
- Humans are squishy and weak by themselves, and they can ensure a good chance of survival by cooperating with others of their kind. And since Chronic Backstabbing Disorder is the surest way to destroy group unity, and fostering an environment of trust and kindness improves the unity of that group, then it follows that their behavior is a product of evolution.
- Alternatively, humans were created to be in touch with their own scruples.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- The species that is being used as humanity's moral yardstick is beholden to an incompatible Blue-and-Orange Morality system and comparison is pointless and invalid; for example, this species, say, the Rayluon, are a race of immortals by means of Resurrective Immortality. So, when they Mercy Kill their injured conspecifics, a human observer may assume their hat is social darwinism, when in reality it's their form of medical care. Speaking of which, they might assume that hospitals are actually glorified torture chambers.
- Taking the galactic community by surprise, the human empire invades and conquers the world of Aeron-IV, destroying their dearest landmarks, blowing up city blocks, military installations, and more and rumors of forced labor begin percolating out of the system.
- Double Subverted:
- And then it's revealed that the Rayluon are actually Nigh-Invulnerable, can only be hurt by others of their own kind, and the process of coming Back from the Dead is excruciatingly painful. And they all know this, but they claim that they would do it only for their compatriots own health, so that when the inevitable betrayal comes they can lavish in their abject despair and pain because they're all sadistic bastards, and using them as a moral yardstick is justified.
- The government running Aeron-IV are tyrannical Scary Dogmatic Aliens and humanity sought to free the people of the planet from this oppression- the rumors of slavery were Malicious Slander. They might be a Destructive Savior, but Good Is Not Soft, after all.
- Parodied: Xythax ran a system-wide survey to find one, just one human who wasn't a goody-goody-two-shoes with Chronic Hero Syndrome to the point of self-sabotage to save a dog in need.
- Zig-Zagged: Some humans are good, others are assholes. Yet still, some possess hearts of gold.
- Averted: Humans are no better nor worse than their counterparts.
- Enforced: The author is feeling positive about their kind.
- Lampshaded: "Huh. For a violent, warfaring, environment-destroying species, humans sure are good compared to other sapient life."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: A group of scammers set up a phony charity or Scam Religion on Earth to defraud humans out of their money, which they think is being sent to a noble cause.
- Defied: Bob is horrified at the notion that he is inherently good, as he is human, and tries extra hard to be a villain so that he can work off his debts.
- Discussed: "I don’t know why, but none of the sapient species I’ve met have ever shown caring or compassion like humans do."
- Conversed: "So, there's a bunch of different alien species, but humans are the only good ones? This show is weird."
- Deconstructed:
- Supposedly, the fact that humans have a predisposition to be their best accentuated the evil of some individuals, who 'chose' to be horrible people, rather than being horrible by their very nature. Aliens never let them forget the atrocities of their very worst, to the point of completely disregarding any attempt at making up for centuries-old crimes and generalizing those crimes to the majority of humanity because being good is just an instinct and Evil Is Easy. And so, humanity collectively decides, Then Let Me Be Evil.
- In this universe, Good Is Dumb — ergo, Humans Are Morons.
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