The Three Secondary Value-Emotions are also organic to our species and exist in us as an impulse to do good. They are proof that people are innately good. For example, we want peace for others as much as we want peace for ourselves because we are wired with the values that make us human – humane.
The reason that we are so sensitive to issues of equality is that we have the innate capacity of empathy– to “feel” or put our self in the place of another and sense what that is like, whether that is in anguish or in joy. Feeling that, we want to act in compassion 1 – to reach out to the other and assist them in their plight.
Our motivation for equality is stimulated when we compare our own life to that of others and see that the quality of their life is “better” or worse than our own. Our sense of inequality then rises within us to motivate us to seek equality for us, and equality for them stimulated by our empathy and compassion for them.
We generalize empathy and compassion toward all of humanity with the term “Love” – the capacity to care for another person or all of humanity, as we would for our self.
1 - http://ccare.stanford.edu/stanford-compassionate-university-project/