No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Empathy in Primates and Other Mammals
Abstract
This chapter focuses on reactions similar to empathy in animals. It presents the similarity of bodily synchronization between primates and human beings through the example of chimpanzees, who yawn seeing another chimpanzee yawn just as human beings do, and reveals the existence of empathy in animals through experiments on rodents. Preconcern is a phenomenon where there is a blind attraction of an organism toward other distressed organisms to make contact and to comfort them. This chapter discusses the theory of mind mechanism in animals, where the animals copy each others’ emotions to make emotional contact. Despite the studies revealing spontaneous consolation among apes, humans are still depicted as the only true altruistic species.
... Instead, some comparative cognitive scientists are trying to dissolve empathy as an aggregation at different levels of phenomena and to find evidence, or evolutionary bases, of each phenomenon in nonhuman animals. [5][6][7] I would like to follow this approach. In this opinion paper, I do not plan to discuss empathy's definition. ...
... Therefore, cognitive understanding of others' situations is not required. There are few well documented empirical studies on this behavior in nonhuman animals, but some researchers think it might be widespread in primates 7,29 and certain animals such as household pets. 30 The chameleon effect is also closely related to this category. ...
... In nonhuman animals, to my knowledge, contagion of positive emotions has been much less reported (observed mostly in only a few primates and dogs as facial or postural mimicry between interacting playmates 57-60 ) than contagion of negative emotions, which can be found in a variety of contexts across species. 6,7 Humans' sensitivity and resonance to positive emotions in others, even in strangers-such as contagion of laughter-might support the abilities probably unique to humans of proactive helping and large-scale cooperation. If a contagion system of positive emotions exists, helping behavior in itself provides psychological reward for the helper since the receiver's happiness can be shared with the helper. ...
Empathy as a research topic is receiving increasing attention, although there seems some confusion on the definition of empathy across different fields. Frans de Waal (de Waal FBM. Putting the altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy. Annu Rev Psychol 2008, 59:279–300. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625 ) used empathy as an umbrella term and proposed a comprehensive model for the evolution of empathy with some of its basic elements in nonhuman animals. In de Waal's model, empathy consists of several layers distinguished by required cognitive levels; the perception‐action mechanism plays the core role for connecting ourself and others. Then, human‐like empathy such as perspective‐taking develops in outer layers according to cognitive sophistication, leading to prosocial acts such as targeted helping. I agree that animals demonstrate many empathy‐related phenomena; however, the species differences and the level of cognitive sophistication of the phenomena might be interpreted in another way than this simple linearly developing model. Our recent studies with chimpanzees showed that their perspective‐taking ability does not necessarily lead to proactive helping behavior. Herein, as a springboard for further studies, I reorganize the empathy‐related phenomena by proposing a combination model instead of the linear development model. This combination model is composed of three organizing factors: matching with others, understanding of others, and prosociality. With these three factors and their combinations, most empathy‐related matters can be categorized and mapped to appropriate context; this may be a good first step to discuss the evolution of empathy in relation to the neural connections in human and nonhuman animal brains. I would like to propose further comparative studies, especially from the viewpoint of Homo‐Pan (chimpanzee and bonobo) comparison. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1431. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1431
This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition
Psychology > Comparative Psychology
Neuroscience > Cognition
... ''Given the morphological similarity between ape consolation behavior and expressions of sympathetic concern in young children, which also touch and embrace distressed individuals, we follow the Darwinian principle of parsimony that if two related species show similar behavior under similar circumstances, the psychology behind their behavior is likely similar, too.'' (De Waal, p. 97, [1]) Empathy, the ability to share emotions, is crucial for many successful social interactions [2]. In humans, empathy comes into play in a vast array of life arenas, from sales and management to romance and parenting, from compassion to political action [3]. ...
... The consolation behavior in apes and humans are similar in the patterns used (e.g. touch/pat, embrace, and food/object sharing [1,11,21,24,66]), in the produced effect (anxiety reduction), and in distribution (relationship quality dependent). Hence, is it legitimate to hypothesize that in Homo and Pan -the last ape lines to have separated around 5-7 mya -consolation has arisen from different proximate factors, thus resulting from a phenomenon of convergent evolution? ...
... According to Darwin's principle of parsimony ''natural selection is continually trying to economize every part of the organization'' [67]. Applying this principle to consolation, de Waal [1] observed that ''if two related species show similar behavior under similar circumstances, the psychology behind their behavior is likely similar, too''. In conclusion, if we accept that consolation is supported by empathic abilities in humans, we should be ready to accept the same for non human apes. ...
Post-conflict third-party affiliation has been reported to have different functional meanings, one of them being consolation. Here, we tested the main hypotheses that have been put forth to explain the presence of this phenomenon at a functional level in the bonobo: Self-Protection Hypothesis, Victim-Protection Hypothesis, Relationship-Repair or Substitute for Reconciliation Hypothesis, and Consolation Hypothesis. By analyzing the data collected over 10 years, we investigated what factors affected the distribution of both spontaneous third party affiliation (initiated by the bystander) and solicited third party affiliation (initiated by the victim). We considered factors related to the individual features (sex, rank, age) of victim and bystander, their relationship quality (kinship, affiliation), and the effect that third party affiliation had on the victim (such as protection against further attacks and anxiety reduction). Both spontaneous and solicited third party affiliation reduced the probability of further aggression by group members on the victim (Victim-Protection Hypothesis supported). Yet, only spontaneous affiliation reduced victim anxiety (measured via self-scratching), thus suggesting that the spontaneous gesture - more than the protection itself - works in calming the distressed subject. The victim may perceive the motivational autonomy of the bystander, who does not require an invitation to provide post-conflict affiliative contact. Moreover, spontaneous - but not solicited - third party affiliation was affected by the bond between consoler and victim, being the relationship between consoler and aggressor irrelevant to the phenomenon distribution (Consolation Hypothesis supported). Spontaneous affiliation followed the empathic gradient described for humans, being mostly offered to kin, then friends, then acquaintances. Overall, our findings do not only indicate the consolatory function of spontaneous third-party affiliation but they also suggest that consolation in the bonobo may be an empathy-based phenomenon.
... Considering these studies, preverbal infants may possess the cognitive abilities necessary for showing a sympathetic response toward attacked others. In addition, de Wall has reported that implicit, automatic responses (e.g., approach) toward distressed others are often observed in primates; this is referred to as ''preconcern'' [18,19]. According to his theory, organisms are naturally endowed with such responsiveness, which functions as a simple behavioral rule: ''If you feel another's pain, get over there and make contact.'' ...
... These findings indicate that preverbal infants show a sympathetic response toward attacked others who displayed no distress, suggesting that rudimentary sympathy for others based on an evaluation that is beyond merely a response to distressed others through emotional contagion [2,3] occurs earlier in development than previously assumed. Although emotional contagion may be the mechanism of this sympathetic response [18,19], our results cannot be explained solely by emotional contagion, because victims did not express emotional signals and because infants responded after the fact on the basis of their evaluations of thirdparty interactions, abstracted from the actions of geometric figures. Indeed, one recent study has demonstrated that toddlers show sympathetic concern for distressed others in the absence of a distressed emotional cue [7]. ...
... In fact, in our experiment, infants did not manifest clear concerns or attempt to comfort the victim. Nevertheless, previous studies have reported that in early infancy, infants have well-developed socio-cognitive abilities11121314, and even rudimentary empathy [18,19], making it plausible that this preference is derived from sympathetic feelings. That said, it is likely that this preference for the victim is a rudimentary form of sympathy. ...
Despite its essential role in human coexistence, the developmental origins and progression of sympathy in infancy are not yet fully understood. We show that preverbal 10-month-olds manifest sympathetic responses, evinced in their preference for attacked others according to their evaluations of the respective roles of victim, aggressor, and neutral party. In Experiment 1, infants viewing an aggressive social interaction between a victim and an aggressor exhibited preference for the victim. In Experiment 2, when comparing the victim and the aggressor to a neutral object, infants preferred the victim and avoided the aggressor. These findings indicate that 10-month-olds not only evaluate the roles of victims and aggressors in interactions but also show rudimentary sympathy toward others in distress based on that evaluation. This simple preference may function as a foundation for full-fledged sympathetic behavior later on.
... In human infants, sympathetic concern for others increases across the second year, concurrent with the onset of a suite of related skills in the domains of inhibition, emotion processing, emotion regulation and appraisal of others' emotional and mental states [25][26][27][30][31][46][47][48]. However, the first signs of sensitivity to the emotional states of others and expressions of cognitive empathy appear at an earlier age [25,[27][28][29]. ...
... whether the nature of juvenile consolation behaviours differs to that offered by adults) and whether or not bonobos display the propensity to console prior to the age range of our juveniles (from 3 to 7 years) will need to be addressed by future work that also includes infants. The finding that juvenile bonobos console victims also fits the notion of 'pre-concern', a hard-wired building block that is thought to emerge before the onset of more advanced forms of sympathetic concern [47]. Pre-concern goes beyond personal distress and the alleviation of self-distress in that it is other-oriented and reduces someone else's distress, but without necessarily comprehending their specific situation. ...
... For each interaction, we conducted focal sampling of the victim using the standardized Post Conflict (PC)-Matched Control (MC) method [47]. For post-conflict focals (PC), this consisted of a 10minute focal sample of the victim immediately following the conflict interaction. ...
How animals respond to conflict provides key insights into the evolution of socio-cognitive and emotional capacities. Evidence from apes has shown that, after social conflicts, bystanders approach victims of aggression to offer stress-alleviating contact behavior, a phenomenon known as consolation. This other-orientated behavior depends on sensitivity to the other's emotional state, whereby the consoler acts to ameliorate the other's situation. We examined post-conflict interactions in bonobos (Pan paniscus) to identify the determinants of consolation and reconciliation. Thirty-six semi-free bonobos of all ages were observed at the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary, DR Congo, using standardized Post-conflict/Matched Control methods. Across age and sex classes, bonobos consoled victims and reconciled after conflicts using a suite of affiliative and socio-sexual behaviors including embracing, touching, and mounting. Juveniles were more likely to console than adults, challenging the assumption that comfort-giving rests on advanced cognitive mechanisms that emerge only with age. Mother-reared individuals were more likely to console than orphans, highlighting the role of rearing in emotional development. Consistent with previous studies, bystanders were more likely to console relatives or closely bonded partners. Effects of kinship, affiliation and rearing were similarly indicated in patterns of reconciliation. Nearby bystanders were significantly more likely to contact victims than more distal ones, and consolation was more likely in non-food contexts than during feeding. The results did not provide convincing evidence that bystander contacts served for self-protection or as substitutes for reconciliation. Overall, results indicate that a suite of social, developmental and contextual factors underlie consolation and reconciliation in bonobos and that a sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to provide appropriate consolatory behaviors emerges early in development.
... La evidencia empírica (Church, 1959;Rice & Gainer, 1962;Ben-Ami Bartal, et al, 2011, 2014, 2016de Waal, 2012;Mojil, 2012;Horner et al, 2011;Mason 2014) permite afirmar que los roedores y una amplia variedad de especies exhiben conducta de ayuda hacia sus congéneres y otros animales diferentes. No obstante, esta descripción se realiza por analogía del comportamiento humano y a partir de inferencias de procesos mentales y emocionales derivados de la auto-Ajayu, Vol. ...
... Ciertamente, la liberación del congénere puede ser negativamente reforzada al reducir la respuesta emocional concomitante y positivamente, al darse paso a la interacción social que sigue a la liberación. No debe descartarse que la conducta de ayuda esté biológicamente sustentada en la fuerza de la propia supervivencia, en cuyo caso debería prestarse atención al aporte de los múltiples procesos neurofisiológicos y químicos de los organismos cuya función es la perpetuación de la especie (de Waal, 2012;Mason, 2014;Jeon y Cols., 2010;Langford y Cols., 2010). El presente estudio fue realizado exclusivamente con ratones machos. ...
El presente estudio, exploró la respuesta emocional de ratones Mus musculus, en presencia de un congénere en situación de necesidad, (en cautiverio forzoso), cuando éste realizaba consecuentemente, conductas de liberación del mismo, con y sin la influencia de una benzodiacepina (Clonazepan). Ocho roedores machos, miembros de la misma camada, fueron divididos en parejas y alojados en una cámara experimental, donde uno de ellos se encontraba cautivo y el otro en libertad. En el estudio, se midió el comportamiento (emocional y de rescate o liberación) del roedor libre, a lo largo de 20 sesiones, 10 de ellas en ausencia del fármaco y otras 10 bajo sus efectos. Los resultados indicaron que los roedores llegan a desarrollar conductas emocionales, cuando perciben que un congénere se encuentra en situación crítica, y que son capaces de manifestar comportamientos de ayuda. Se analizó también los efectos inhibitorios de la benzodiacepina sobre tales conductas y se discutió sobre las connotaciones de su efecto.
... Accordingly, empathy is considered to be a way of gaining access to another's mind by stepping into their "shoes" (Goldman, 2006). Despite the role of cognition in human empathy, insights from neuroscience, genetics, development, and comparative psychology have all demonstrated that the beginnings of empathy are likely to involve much simpler mechanisms that are shared across mammals (de Waal, 2012;. The directness of the empathy mechanism is reflected in the widely supported Perception Action Mechanism (PAM; as a proximate explanation of empathy, which assumes that another individual's affective state is represented at least in part in the self's own experience of the same state. ...
... During both ontogeny and evolution, learning and intelligence add layers of complexity to the basic state-matching mechanism of empathy, making the response increasingly discerning until full-blown emotional and cognitive empathy emerges (de Waal, 2012). Comparative research on animals has been pivotal in elucidating how the layering of these different capacities is organized, as well as for determining which aspects of empathy are common across species, which are found in a select number of large-brained animals and which are uniquely human. ...
Neuronal Correlates of Empathy: From Rodent to Human explores the neurobiology behind emotional contagion, compassionate behaviors and the similarities in rodents and human and non-human primates. The book provides clear and accessible information that avoids anthropomorphisms, reviews the latest research from the literature, and is essential reading for neuroscientists and others studying behavior, emotion and empathy impairments, both in basic research and preclinical studies. Though empathy is still considered by many to be a uniquely human trait, growing evidence suggests that it is present in other species, and that rodents, non-human primates, and humans share similarities.
... Accordingly, empathy is considered to be a way of gaining access to another's mind by stepping into their "shoes" (Goldman, 2006). Despite the role of cognition in human empathy, insights from neuroscience, genetics, development, and comparative psychology have all demonstrated that the beginnings of empathy are likely to involve much simpler mechanisms that are shared across mammals (de Waal, 2012;. The directness of the empathy mechanism is reflected in the widely supported Perception Action Mechanism (PAM; as a proximate explanation of empathy, which assumes that another individual's affective state is represented at least in part in the self's own experience of the same state. ...
... During both ontogeny and evolution, learning and intelligence add layers of complexity to the basic state-matching mechanism of empathy, making the response increasingly discerning until full-blown emotional and cognitive empathy emerges (de Waal, 2012). Comparative research on animals has been pivotal in elucidating how the layering of these different capacities is organized, as well as for determining which aspects of empathy are common across species, which are found in a select number of large-brained animals and which are uniquely human. ...
... It is a relational construct, an experience of self ''feeling with" another that allows bonds to be woven from the fabric of shared pain. Its centrality in the formation and maintenance of social bonds is implicated in its phylogenic history: Empathy is thought to have evolved out of the mammalian caregiving system to promote adaptive responses to the needs of kin, as well as to promote cooperation and resource sharing among group members (de Waal, 2008(de Waal, , 2012Decety, Norman, Berntson, & Cacioppo, 2012;MacLean, 1985;Preston, 2013;Preston & de Waal, 2002;Taylor, 2002). Indeed, research in primates (Clay & de Waal, 2013;de Waal, 2008de Waal, , 2012, rodents (Bartal, Decety, & Mason, 2011;Bartal, Rodgers, Sarria, Decety, & Mason, 2014;Mogil, 2012;Panksepp & Lahvis, 2011), and other mammals (e.g., Custance & Mayer, 2012) suggests that the capacity to understand others' intentions and to resonate with others' emotions underlies social interaction in a variety of animal species (Panksepp & Panksepp, 2013). ...
... Its centrality in the formation and maintenance of social bonds is implicated in its phylogenic history: Empathy is thought to have evolved out of the mammalian caregiving system to promote adaptive responses to the needs of kin, as well as to promote cooperation and resource sharing among group members (de Waal, 2008(de Waal, , 2012Decety, Norman, Berntson, & Cacioppo, 2012;MacLean, 1985;Preston, 2013;Preston & de Waal, 2002;Taylor, 2002). Indeed, research in primates (Clay & de Waal, 2013;de Waal, 2008de Waal, , 2012, rodents (Bartal, Decety, & Mason, 2011;Bartal, Rodgers, Sarria, Decety, & Mason, 2014;Mogil, 2012;Panksepp & Lahvis, 2011), and other mammals (e.g., Custance & Mayer, 2012) suggests that the capacity to understand others' intentions and to resonate with others' emotions underlies social interaction in a variety of animal species (Panksepp & Panksepp, 2013). In humans, this faculty has expanded beyond the immediate circle of one's kinship group, allowing us to care for the well-being of strangers, out-group members, and even those we never encounter in person; stories of earthquake victims and displaced refugees move us, even in the absence of a face-to-face encounter (Stone, 2006 Although the broad capacity to empathize is considered nearly universal, individual differences in the ability and tendency to do so have significant implications for social functioning across development (Eisenberg, 2000;Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Knafo-Noam, 2015). ...
Empathy involves understanding and “feeling with” others’ emotions, and is an essential capacity underlying sensitive care in humans and other species. Evidence suggests that the roots of empathy appear early in ontogeny, and that individual differences in empathy bear meaningfully on children’s social behavior and relationships throughout development. Here we draw upon attachment theory to provide a conceptual model of how attachment may contribute to individual differences in empathic development, with a focus on mediating mechanisms and moderators at multiple levels of analysis. We then review the research on attachment-related differences in empathy from infancy through adolescence. Given the theoretical predictions, empirical findings are surprisingly mixed and appear to depend on contextual, methodological, and developmental factors. We discuss potential explanations for the equivocal findings and highlight key areas for further investigation, including the need for longitudinal designs and multimethod assessment that captures the multiple dimensions of empathy in childhood.
... La investigación del comportamiento emocional en los animales sugiere ensayar explicaciones más parsimoniosas, basadas principalmente en la lectura se señales físicas y corporales difundidas por el individuo que expresa una necesidad (de Waal, 2012). ...
El contenido del presente ensayo corresponde a tres temas generales que expuse en una conferencia dirigida a estudiantes y maestros: el contexto de la globalización, su impacto o influencia en la investigación antropológica, que deriva en varios retos y desafíos en el desarrollo de la tarea del antropólogo. Un cambio importante es la forma y tipo de comunicación entre los humanos, la reconfiguración de las colectividades y el impacto sociocultural de las nuevas tecnologías. Eventos que obligan a modificar y actualizar las estrategias metodológicas de investigación del antropólogo, dando lugar a la presencia de diferentes tipos de etnografías
... Summarized, empathy can serve many roles and empathetic responding can be elicited both for negative feelings (i.e., pain) and positive feelings (i.e., joy). The different roles of empathy, clinical and otherwise, have spurred much research ranging from brain imaging-studies in humans (Akitsuki & Decety, 2009;Masten et al., 2011;Nummenmaa et al., 2008), to behavior in animals (Bates et al., 2008;de Waal, 2012;Meyza et al., 2017), and questionnaire-based psychometry (Melchers et al., 2016;Montgomery et al., 2016). ...
Empathy is a heavily researched term, albeit mostly outside of a traditional behavior analytic point of view. As a psychological construct, empathy has been researched using many different techniques—animal models, neuroimaging studies and questionnaires. As for research purposes, however, there is still much debate on how to define empathy; the definitions that exist do not necessarily involve an operational analysis of behavior. Hence, in the current paper we propose a new conceptualization of empathy that is based on basic behavior analytical concepts and backed up by previous research from both behavioristic and traditional psychological fields. The concepts put forth in this paper are not a replacement for other theories regarding the role of empathy, what it is and what it is not, but an alternative approach driven by a lack of behavior-environmental contingencies in the traditional definitions of empathy.
... Given the choice of reaching for the agents, infants preferred the victim over the aggressor, and even preferred the victim over a neutral agent, meaning the results cannot be explained only by a negative evaluation of an antisocial act. The authors concluded that this preference for a victim is best explained by a rudimentary form of sympathy for victims of antisocial acts, because empathic detection of others' suffering leads to sympathetic approach behaviour (de Waal, 2008(de Waal, , 2012Fujisawa, Kutsukake, & Hasegawa, 2006;Kanakogi et al., 2017). ...
Studies of infants’ and adults’ social cognition frequently use geometric-shape agents such as coloured squares and circles, but the influence of agent visual-form on social cognition has been little investigated. Here, although adults gave accurate explicit descriptions of interactions between geometric-shape aggressors and victims, implicit association tests for dominance and valence did not detect tendencies to encode the shapes’ social attributes on an implicit level. With regard to valence, the lack of any systematic implicit associations precludes conclusive interpretations. With regard to dominance, participants implicitly associated a yellow square as more dominant than a blue circle, even when the true relationship was the reverse of this and was correctly explicitly described by participants. Therefore, although explicit dominance judgements were strongly influenced by observed behaviour, implicit dominance associations were more clearly influenced by preconceived associations between visual form and social characteristics. This study represents a cautionary tale for those conducting experiments using geometric-shape agents.
... Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the internal states of others [1]. This ability is vital to engage in successful relationships within complex social networks and, consequently, to increase individual fitness [2]. ...
Psychological, clinical and neurobiological findings endorse that empathic abilities are more developed in women than in men. Because there is growing evidence that yawn contagion is an empathy-based phenomenon, we expect that the female bias in the empathic abilities reflects on a gender skew in the responsiveness to others' yawns. We verified this assumption by applying a linear model on a dataset gathered during a 5 year period of naturalistic observations on humans. Gender, age and social bond were included in the analysis as fixed factors. The social bond and the receiver's gender remained in the best model. The rates of contagion were significantly lower between acquaintances than between friends and family members, and significantly higher in women than in men. These results not only confirm that yawn contagion is sensitive to social closeness, but also that the phenomenon is affected by the same gender bias affecting empathy. The sex skew, also found in other non-human species, fits with the female social roles which are likely to require higher empathic abilities (e.g. parental care, group cohesion maintenance, social mediation). The fact that female influence in social dynamics also relies on face-to-face emotional exchange raises concerns on the negative repercussions of having women's facial expressions forcibly concealed.
... Consistent with this mode of response activation, it has been hypothesized that contagious yawning is rooted within a perception-action mechanism tied to basic forms of empathic processing (Preston and de Waal, 2002). A growing literature shows an indirect association between contagious yawning and empathy, both behaviorally (Platek et al., 2003;Palagi et al., 2009;de Waal, 2011, 2014;Demuru and Palagi, 2012;Norscia and Palagi, 2011;de Waal, 2012;Romero et al., 2013Romero et al., , 2014Silva et al., 2012;Rundle et al., 2015; but see Bartholomew and Cirulli, 2014) and neurologically (Platek et al., 2005;Arnott et al., 2009;Nahab et al., 2009;Cooper et al., 2012;Haker et al., 2013; but see Schurmann et al., 2005;Gallup and Church, 2015). Studies investigating the developmental onset of contagious yawning in children also generally support this view (Anderson and Meno, 2003;Millen and Anderson, 2010;Hoogenhout et al., 2013), since contagious yawning develops in parallel with empathy related capacities (e.g., Perner and Lang, 1999). ...
While comparative research on contagious yawning has grown substantially in the past few years, both the interpersonal factors influencing this response and the sensory modalities involved in its activation in humans remain relatively unknown. Extending upon previous studies showing various in-group and status effects in non-human great apes, we performed an initial study to investigate how the political affiliation (Democrat vs. Republican) and status (high vs. low) of target stimuli influences auditory contagious yawning, as well as the urge to yawn, in humans. Self-report responses and a subset of video recordings were analyzed from 118 undergraduate students in the US following exposure to either breathing (control) or yawning (experimental) vocalizations paired with images of former US Presidents (high status) and their respective Cabinet Secretaries of Commerce (low status). The overall results validate the use of auditory stimuli to prompt yawn contagion, with greater response in the experimental than the control condition. There was also a negative effect of political status on self-reported yawning and the self-reported urge to yawn irrespective of the condition. In contrast, we found no evidence for a political affiliation bias in this response. These preliminary findings are discussed in terms of the existing comparative evidence, though we highlight limitations in the current investigation and we provide suggestions for future research in this area.
... A short list exemplifying empathy's role in several aspects of modern societal discourse might include its centrality in political-civic discourse (e.g., as a central moral concept in the agenda of US President Barak Obama; see Obama, 2006); its integration into democratic and political decision-making processes (e.g., Morrell, 2010); its representation in business in relation to customer service and marketing (e.g., Patnaik & Mortersen, 2009); its inclusion in school curricula (e.g., Davis, Yeager, & Forester, 2001;Gordon, 2007); and its consideration in discussions on globalization as it relates to the increase in communication technologies across geographies, both in terms of intercultural communications (e.g., Pedersen, Crethar, & Carlson, 2008) and environmental concerns (e.g., Rifkin, 2009). Some writers suggest that cultivating empathy in citizens will assist in alleviating some of what ails modern society (e.g., Trout, 2009), and some view it as a central concept through which to study the human condition (e.g., Agosta, 2010), although many do not believe that the occurrence of empathy (in some form) is restricted to human beings alone (e.g., Grenier & L€ uthi, 2010; see also de Waal, 2012). ...
... A short list exemplifying empathy's role in several aspects of modern societal discourse might include its centrality in political-civic discourse (e.g., as a central moral concept in the agenda of US President Barak Obama; see Obama, 2006); its integration into democratic and political decision-making processes (e.g., Morrell, 2010); its representation in business in relation to customer service and marketing (e.g., Patnaik & Mortersen, 2009); its inclusion in school curricula (e.g., Davis, Yeager, & Forester, 2001;Gordon, 2007); and its consideration in discussions on globalization as it relates to the increase in communication technologies across geographies, both in terms of intercultural communications (e.g., Pedersen, Crethar, & Carlson, 2008) and environmental concerns (e.g., Rifkin, 2009). Some writers suggest that cultivating empathy in citizens will assist in alleviating some of what ails modern society (e.g., Trout, 2009), and some view it as a central concept through which to study the human condition (e.g., Agosta, 2010), although many do not believe that the occurrence of empathy (in some form) is restricted to human beings alone (e.g., Grenier & L€ uthi, 2010; see also de Waal, 2012). ...
... A short list exemplifying empathy's role in several aspects of modern societal discourse might include its centrality in political-civic discourse (e.g., as a central moral concept in the agenda of US President Barak Obama; see Obama, 2006); its integration into democratic and political decision-making processes (e.g., Morrell, 2010); its representation in business in relation to customer service and marketing (e.g., Patnaik & Mortersen, 2009); its inclusion in school curricula (e.g., Davis, Yeager, & Forester, 2001;Gordon, 2007); and its consideration in discussions on globalization as it relates to the increase in communication technologies across geographies, both in terms of intercultural communications (e.g., Pedersen, Crethar, & Carlson, 2008) and environmental concerns (e.g., Rifkin, 2009). Some writers suggest that cultivating empathy in citizens will assist in alleviating some of what ails modern society (e.g., Trout, 2009), and some view it as a central concept through which to study the human condition (e.g., Agosta, 2010), although many do not believe that the occurrence of empathy (in some form) is restricted to human beings alone (e.g., Grenier & L€ uthi, 2010; see also de Waal, 2012). ...
... In contrast, contagious yawns are elicited simply by sensing or even thinking about the action in others [11]. Unlike its spontaneous form, which appears evolutionarily older by its observed presence in all classes of vertebrates [12] and early onset in uterine development [13], contagious yawning appears to be a more recently derived behavior as evidenced by its presence in relatively few highly social species [2][3][4][5][6][7] and delayed ontogeny [14][15][16][17][18]. Research investigating contagious yawning has emphasized the influence of interpersonal and emotional-cognitive variables on its expression [4,5,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], but there have been few attempts to combine theoretical frameworks when explaining both contagious and spontaneous effects. Due to the potential multifunctionality of yawning across species [12,29], however, recent reports on social primates have highlighted potentially important differences in yawn morphology or intensity [5,30,31]. ...
The thermoregulatory theory of yawning posits that yawns function to cool the brain in part due to counter-current heat exchange with the deep inhalation of ambient air. Consequently, yawning should be constrained to an optimal thermal zone or range of temperature, i.e., a thermal window, in which we should expect a lower frequency at extreme temperatures. Previous research shows that yawn frequency diminishes as ambient temperatures rise and approach body temperature, but a lower bound to the thermal window has not been demonstrated. To test this, a total of 120 pedestrians were sampled for susceptibly to self-reported yawn contagion during distinct temperature ranges and seasons (winter: 1.4 °C, n = 60; summer: 19.4 °C, n = 60). As predicted, the proportion of pedestrians reporting yawning was significantly lower during winter than in summer (18.3% vs. 41.7%), with temperature being the only significant predictor of these differences across seasons. The underlying mechanism for yawning in humans, both spontaneous and contagious, appears to be involved in brain thermoregulation.
... Such signals are primary and powerful stimuli that call for parental care. Without doubt, some aspects of emotional connectedness, empathy and even concern are present in other non-human animals (Cheney and Seyfarth, 1985;De Waal, 2011). Emotion contagion constitutes a phylogenetically ancient and basic form of intraspecies communication that has been documented in many vertebrate species (Hatfield et al., 1994). ...
The ontogeny of human empathy is better understood with reference to the evolutionary history of the social brain. Empathy has deep evolutionary, biochemical, and neurological underpinnings. Even the most advanced forms of empathy in humans are built on more basic forms and remain connected to core mechanisms associated with affective communication, social attachment, and parental care. In this paper, we argue that it is essential to consider empathy within a neurodevelopmental framework that recognizes both the continuities and changes in socioemotional understanding from infancy to adulthood. We bring together neuroevolutionary and developmental perspectives on the information processing and neural mechanisms underlying empathy and caring, and show that they are grounded in multiple interacting systems and processes. Moreover, empathy in humans is assisted by other abstract and domain-general high-level cognitive abilities such as executive functions, mentalizing and language, as well as the ability to differentiate another's mental states from one's own, which expand the range of behaviors that can be driven by empathy.
In this article, we propose to reconceptualize phenomenology in a relational way. Instead of taking subjective consciousness as the starting point for the constitution of meaning, we consider meaning (as well as subjects and subjectivities) as something that is produced in social relations, or more precisely, in communicative actions. In order to explore how this works we empirically study mutual gaze as a critical case. At first sight, the reciprocity that arises when two subjects look into each other’s eyes and perceive how they look and are being looked at reciprocally seems to be “pure,” i.e. free of any mediation by language, gestures or other objectivations. It turns out, however, that mutual gaze unfolds, albeit highly ambivalently and fluidly, as an “object in time”. In contrast to non‑subjectivist approaches, we argue that we need some sort of subjectivity to understand phenomena such as mutual gaze. However, we also need to understand its embeddedness in cultures as well as in social relations. This is what Relational Phenomenology means.
Stone handling (SH) is a form of solitary object play widely documented in four species of macaques and most recently also in geladas ( Theropithecus gelada ). Here, we describe the SH activity of two mother-reared captive gelada males, who combined different behavioral patterns in a sequence that occasionally led to the production of colored marks on a hard surface. Two playful techniques of different complexity emerged spontaneously in the two subjects. In the etching and releasing technique, the stone or pieces of it were repeatedly scraped across either a vertical or horizontal hard surface. In the grind and finger technique , additional patterns were recruited such as scratching the stone to produce small debris that the subjects manipulated through a thumb–index finger precision grip. Animals selected preferentially hard surfaces when their SH sessions involved patterns that potentially released color and engaged in such patterns for longer and in a repeated way. This evidence suggests the high motivation of the two males to engage in drawing-like behavior that, as it occurs for other forms of play, can be characterized by its autotelic self-rewarding nature. Digital video images related to the article are available at http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo220922tg01a and http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo220923tg01a
This is a reflection in connection with the events of the 2022 war. The answers to the many questions regarding the massive atrocity taking place in 2022 are to be found in Z-culture. It is a phenomenon of a strictly defined character and was created for massive atrocities. This is its meaning and significance. Z-culture is not just an invention of recent years. Z-culture has unique forms of manifestation, but the phenomenon itself is very old. The main feature of the Z-culture is associated with the formation of a special type of empathy. Let's call it Z-empathy. Empathy is a huge topic of scientific research. Z-culture, as well as one or another version of Z-empathy, determine the models of mass behavior. There is reason to believe that there is a mass stupidity (foolishness) of the population that has mastered Z-empathy. Surely, IQ falls to record lows. The reason is that strong and extremely negative feelings overwhelm a person. He is unable to think normally. Z-empathy contains a strange element of sacrifice. This is a kind of collective suicide. People deliberately and purposefully inflict irreparable harm on themselves. They don't do it because they don't know the consequences. They do it because they "sacrifice themselves." When polls of Russian citizens demonstrate “support” for Putin and the war in Ukraine, it is not easy to understand. The introduction of the term "Z-empathy" helps in understanding. Citizens of the Russian Federation are not without empathy in general. They are not insensitive and indifferent people. These are people with a special type of empathy. Z-culture is a neurotic phenomenon. It stimulates activity in various directions. Scandal (of one kind or another) is a symbol of Z culture. Whatever the explanation, preventive measures must be taken. The Russian Federation is too dangerous a state. Its population shifts too easily to Z-empathy. They are ready to kill people of the post-Soviet space for money. Russian mercenaries in Ukraine receive between $1,000 and $4,000 per month. One has to be careful with such a neighboring state.
Empathy has gained prominence within Evolutionary Psychology. It consists of sharing emotions and understanding the other's point of view and tends to differ between men and women. However, it is still unclear what are its evolutionary advantages. Clinical and mental health factors may also influence the expression of empathy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare empathy between male and female undergraduate students, as well as the clinical and mental health profiles in individuals with low and high empathy scores. We applied online the “Escala Multidimensional de Reatividade Interpessoal” (EMRI), to measure empathy, and the "ConVid - Pesquisa de Comportamentos'' to assess the emotional states and clinical profile of 155 students from the Federal University of Goiás. In total, there were 69 male participants (23.85 ± 3.72 years) and 86 female participants (24.29 ± 5.55 years). The scores of the empathy subscales were compared between genders using Student's t-test (p<0.05). Higher scores of Empathic Concern (p<0.0001), Personal Distress (p=0.0051) and Global Empathy Score (p=0.0002) were found for women compared to men. Moreover, more empathic people have higher levels of self-perception of their emotional states (p=0.0026). The results confirm the findings in the literature, which indicate that women tend to be more empathic than men. The study of the subject in other contexts are still important for a more precise understanding of the evolutionary phenomenon of empathy.
Exploring the social release paradigm and development of empathy conceptualizations.
Research on social animal behavior is growing within social neuroscience. Basic research on behavioral processes in animals has always been the forte of behavior analysis, but the collaboration and crossover between the fields are minimal. This is illustrated with the well-established rodent social-release paradigm, which features two conflicting explanations: empathic motivations from social neuroscience, and social reinforcement from a behaviorist point of view. A three-term contingency analysis identifies areas within the studies of social release where more research is needed, and which is neutral regarding explanatory causes. This analysis allows for
Animals are often presumed to lack moral agency insofar as they lack the capacities for reflection or the ability to understand their motivating reasons for acting. In this paper, I argue that animals are in some cases morally responsible. First, I outline conditions of moral action, drawing from a quality of will account of moral responsibility. Second, I review recent empirical research on the capacities needed for moral action in humans and show that animals also have such capacities. I conclude that though it may be difficult to engage in the practice of holding animals morally responsible, given the communication barrier and lack of mutual understanding, some animals nevertheless act in ways for which they are morally responsible.
In several primate species, including humans, embracing predicts the level of affiliation between subjects. To explore the functional meaning of embracing, we selected Theropithecus gelada as a model species. The basic level of the gelada society is the 1-male unit, and the integrity of the group is maintained by the strong bonds between females. In our study group, we observed 3 different kinds of embracing: the frontal and side embraces involving a face-to-face and chest-to-chest interaction and the posterior embrace that consists in putting the arms around conspecifics’ back and posing a cheek on it. We verified that the quality of relationships between subjects predicts the type of embracing. Frontal and side embraces were more frequent between females sharing strong bonds. Posterior embracing was randomly distributed. We found a high level of female embracing among the mothers during the first months of lactation. This may improve female cohesiveness against males, thus reducing the risk of infanticide, which is particularly high in geladas. Embracing seems also to act as an ice-breaker favoring grooming. Female embracing could be an affiliative strategy that has evolved to maintain group integrity and high social cohesion among females, especially mothers.
Play is one of the most difficult behaviors to quantify and for this reason, its study has had a very rocky history. Social play is ephemeral, difficult to distinguish from the other so-called serious behaviors, not so frequent (especially in sexually mature subjects), fast, and complex to describe. Due to its multifaceted nature, it has often been considered as a wastebasket category that has included all kinds of the behaviors not showing any immediate, obvious goal. Yet, play is widespread across the whole primate order and can have a strong impact on the development of cognitive, psychological, and social skills of many species, including humans. Unlike functional behaviors that are specifically and economically performed to reduce uncertainty and to increase the opportunity to gain resources, play seems to introduce and increase uncertainty, creating new challenges for the animals. For this reason, social play has been hypothesized to be the engine of behavioral innovation in ontogeny. From the first mild and gentle interactions with the mother to the most sophisticated play fighting sessions and acrobatic action sequences with peers, play represents for juveniles (and not only for them!) a window onto the social and physical environment. In this review, I focus on social play and its relation to adult social competence. By playing, juveniles acquire competence to manage interactions with conspecifics, enlarge their social networks, and test their physical power and motor skills (i.e., long-term benefits). At the same time, I propose the view that play—due to its plastic and versatile nature—can be used in an opportunistic way, as a joker behavior, throughout life to strategically obtain short-term or immediate benefits. I put forward the hypothesis that, during ontogeny, the joker function of play can be modulated according to the differing inter-individual relationships present in the diverse societies, characterizing the primate order.
In the last five years, a great deal has been learned about how human brains address the social problem of punishing wrongdoers. Although it is far too early to be confident that these insights will shed any practical light on criminal law or procedure, patterns are emerging that suggest a framework that someday could have significant legal and social consequences. In this chapter, we first survey the behavioural and theoretical evidence supporting the proposition that the willingness to blame then punish norm-violators is an evolved human trait. Then we sample the recent neuroscience literature on normative punishment, and follow that with a presentation of our neuropsychological model of blame and third-party punishment. We finish with a discussion of the potential implications a confirmed model might have for law and policy.
A presentation concerning a behavior analytical approach to pro-social behavior. Behavior Analysis and the focus on behavioral measures is used as proposed as fitting methodology to extract the exact stimuli controlling rat pro-social behavior. The presentation is in Norwegian. For summary in English, contact the author.
Although questions about nonhuman animal mind and selfhood have been a long-standing interest of philosophers, psychologists, biologists, and cognitive ethologists, sociologists have been reluctant to acknowledge the importance of such questions. This is due, in part, to George Herbert Mead's denial of consciousness, especially self-consciousness, in animals. Indeed, the exclusion of nonhuman consciousness was a fundamental axiom of Mead's very conceptions of mind and self. However, recently a growing number symbolic interactionists have begun to build a body of research that demands a reconsideration of Mead's anthropocentric and phonocentric definitions of mind, self, and the nonhuman participants who cohabit the everyday world of social life. Here we provide a brief account of their work and present evidence from evolutionary biology, cognitive ethology, and neuroscience that strongly validates their contention that the processes of consciousness and self, which constitute the cornerstone of meaningful social action and interaction, can no longer be denied to several species of nonhuman animals.
In humans and apes, yawn contagion echoes emotional contagion, the basal layer of empathy. Hence, yawn contagion is a unique tool to compare empathy across species. If humans are the most empathic animal species, they should show the highest empathic response also at the level of emotional contagion. We gathered data on yawn contagion in humans (Homo sapiens) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) by applying the same observational paradigm and identical operational definitions. We selected a naturalistic approach because experimental management practices can produce different psychological and behavioural biases in the two species, and differential attention to artificial stimuli. Within species, yawn contagion was highest between strongly bonded subjects. Between species, sensitivity to others' yawns was higher in humans than in bonobos when involving kin and friends but was similar when considering weakly-bonded subjects. Thus, emotional contagion is not always high-est in humans. The cognitive components concur in empowering emotional affinity between individuals. Yet, when they are not in play, humans climb down from the empathic podium to return to the "understory", which our species shares with apes.
A sand-dwelling Mediterranean ant, Cataglyphis cursor, recently was discovered to engage in two new forms of rescue behaviour, behavioural patterns that require would-be rescuers to recognize what, exactly, holds nestmates in place. That is, when sand digging and limb pulling, two well-known forms of rescue in ants, did not result in release of victims ensnared with nylon thread and partially buried beneath the sand, rescuers next began to transport sand away from the snare and to direct their behaviour to the snare in particular, biting and tugging at the snare itself. To determine whether these new forms of precisely directed rescue behaviour, as well as their exclusive delivery to nestmates, as in C. cursor, were characteristic of other ants occupying similar ecological niches, we conducted experiments with five sand-dwelling Mediterranean ant species: Cataglyphis floricola, Lasius grandis, Aphaenogaster senilis, Messor barbarus and Messor marocanus. Our experiments revealed the full range of rescue behaviour, including snare biting and sand transport, in two species, C. floricola and L. grandis. Both species directed rescue exclusively towards nestmates, treating other individuals, even conspecifics, with aggression, thus highlighting the ants' discriminative capacities. Differences in the performance of rescue behaviour between these and the remaining species mirror differences in their ecology, including the threat of predatory antlions. Finally, because this precisely directed and exclusively delivered rescue behaviour in ants resembles behaviour that has been labelled empathy in rats, our results demonstrate that what can appear to be complex, cognitively motivated behaviour might come about through much simpler mechanisms.
Although the study of helping behavior has revolutionized the field of behavioral ecology, scientific examination of rescue behavior remains extremely rare, except perhaps in ants, having been described as early as 1874. Nonetheless, recent work in our laboratories has revealed several new patterns of rescue behavior that appear to be much more complex than previously studied forms. This precisely-directed rescue behavior bears a remarkable resemblance to what has been labeled empathy in rats, and thus raises numerous philosophical and theoretical questions: How should rescue behavior (or empathy) be defined? What distinguishes rescue from other forms of altruism? In what ways is rescue behavior in ants different from, and similar to, rescue in other non-human animals? What selection pressures dictate its appearance? In this paper, we review our own experimental studies of rescue in both laboratory and field, which, taken together, begin to reveal some of the behavioral ecological conditions that likely have given rise to rescue behavior in ants. Against this background, we also address important theoretical questions involving rescue, including those outlined above. In this way, we hope not only to encourage further experimental analysis of rescue behavior, but also to highlight important similarities and differences in very distant taxa.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.