CW: speculation on human wishes to be "useful"
Interesting topic, thanks. Yeah, I too have the feeling it's "deeper than culture".
My intuition, and I could be wrong, is that the wish to make a difference in the world is intrinsic to humans. I feel like quite a lot of vandalism (when not done for reasons of politics or resentment) is actually this impulse combined with "having nothing better to do".
I'm not saying humans can't _ever_ enjoy feeling they can't have any effect on the world, because I think that can feel good as a temporary holiday, especially if you're over-functioning the rest of the time. Like if your only "time off" is when you physically can't do anything! But most people would find it highly unsatisfactory as a long-term state.
I think for most people it's also a preference for the results to be helpful to other humans (or other entities), and the big variable is the scope of which humans. Most people doing killing and hurting have it put together in their heads that they're helping _their_ lot.
I think there _can_ be people whose group is only themself. I'm not sure whether that's always from childhood abuse/neglect or whether some is genetic.
Of course there is also a lot of culture involved around this territory: things like _what_ is considered useful at different times and places, how children are raised in relation to their own autonomy, whether it's considered important for everyone to have a role where they _can_ contribute, etc.
