Prosocial Primates: Empathy in Animals and Humans

The GGSC is pleased to present this talk by Greater Good editorial board member Frans de Waal--world-renowned primatologist, one of Discover magazine's "47 Great Minds of Science," and a pioneer in the study of the evolutionary basis of empathy and kindness. Dr. de Waal's research is not only foundational to the GGSC's work but is always highly entertaining and eye-opening.

In this talk, he will explore the evolutionary roots of empathy and sympathy--and consider why this discovery has received relatively little attention.

He'll consider two factors that might explain this lack of little attention.

One is that evolutionary biology, until recently, preferred a "nature red in tooth and claw" view that had no place for kindness. The second has been an excessive fear of anthropomorphism and a taboo on the term "emotion" in relation to animals.

Both of these influences take little account of actual animal behavior, which would lead one to agree with Darwin that "many animals certainly sympathize with each other's distress or danger." However, in Dr. de Waal's work with monkeys, apes, and elephants, he has found many cases of one individual coming to another's aid in a fight, putting an arm around a previous victim of attack, or other emotional responses to the distress of others. In fact, hel posits that the entire communication system of nonhuman primates is emotionally mediated.

At this talk, Dr. de Waal will review expressions of empathy in animals, which ranges from a core mechanism of emotional linkage (known as emotional contagion) to higher levels of perspective-taking and targeted helping. This increases the effectiveness of sympathetic support, care, and reassurance. He will also discuss the sense of fairness in animals, including the Ultimatum Game which his research team recently played with chimpanzees.

Speaker: Dr. Frans de Waal, Emory University