One of the most influential people in the study of empathy is
the Professor of Primate Behavior, Frans de
Waal. See links to videos and articles about him and his work below.
Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy
(Society becoming more empathic, Supreme Court example,
from maternal care,
Oxytocin, cross species empathy, conservatives see Social Darwinism,
competition v. empathy, degrees of empathy in many animals).
After many of such tests it
has now been concluded that, yes, primates other than humans love to
help each other. They do care about the welfare of others as much as
humans do, which is to say, some of the time.
This has implications for
modern human society, because all too often politicians start from
the assumption that society needs to be structured around competition,
given that this is how nature works. Their dismal, inaccurate view of
the natural world thus informs their view of human society. Too bad if
some people have no health insurance, so the argument goes, so long as
those who can afford it do. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona went one step
further by voting against coverage of maternity care, because, as he
explained, he had never had any need for it himself.
I feel that we should hold
Senator Kyl and others of his species aloft in the glaring daylight and
see what their shadow tells us. If they don't see the sun soon, there
will be a never-ending winter.
2010-01-00 - Frans
de Waal.-
The Evolution of Empathy
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/2010/january/De_Waal.php Empathy's not a uniquely human trait, explains primatologist
Frans de Waal. Apes and other animals feel it as well,
suggesting that empathy is truly an essential part of who we are.
Once upon a time, the United States had a president known
for a peculiar facial display. In an act of controlled emotion, he would bite
his lower lip and tell his audience, "I feel your pain." Whether the display was
sincere is not the issue here; how we are affected by another's predicament is.
Empathy is second nature to us, so much so that anyone devoid of it strikes us
as dangerous or mentally ill.
At the movies, we can't help but get inside the skin of the characters on the
screen. We despair when their gigantic ship sinks; we exult when they finally
stare into the eyes of a long-lost lover.
2009-09-xx - Article -
By Frans de Waal - Bodies
in Sync
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/251555/sept
Contagious laughter, yawns, and moods offer insight into empathy’s origins. That is where empathy and sympathy start—with the synchronization of
bodies—not in the higher regions of imagination, or in the ability to
consciously reconstruct how we would feel if we were in someone else’s “shoes.”
And yet empathy is often presented as a voluntary process, requiring role
taking, higher cognition, and even language. Accordingly, most scholarly
literature on empathy is completely human centered, never mentioning other
animals. As if a capacity so visceral and pervasive could be anything other than
biological! To counter such widespread views, I decided to investigate how
chimpanzees relate to and learn from one another.
The behavior of our ape relatives, known as peaceful vegetarians, once bolstered
the view that our actions could not be traced to an impulse to dominate. But in
the late 1970s, when chimpanzees were discovered to hunt monkeys and kill each
other, they became the poster boys for our violent origins and aggressive
instinct. ....
The empathy literature on animals is growing fast, and is no
longer restricted to such anecdotes. There are now systematic studies, and even
experiments that show that we are not the only caring species. At the same time,
we are getting used to findings of remarkable human empathy, such as those by
neuroscientists that reward centers in the brain light up when we give to
charity (hence the saying that "doing good feels good") or that seeing another
in pain activates the same brain areas as when we are in pain ourselves.
Obviously, we are hard-wired to be in tune with the emotions of others, a
capacity that evolution should never have favored if exploitation of others were
all that mattered.
2009-10-10 - Article -
By Frans de Waal - Morals without God
http:/www.huffingtonpost.com/frans-de-waal/morals-without-god_b_316473.html
Without God, we will live like animals!
After listening to the
debate between Bill O'Reilly and Richard Dawkins, it struck me again that
the resistance to evolutionary theory largely stems from the illusion that
without God there can be no morality. Some believers feel threatened by
evolutionary theory not because the theory is right or wrong -- the evidence
doesn't seem to matter much to them -- but because accepting it would mean
accepting that we have been created by natural processes including our
morality. The final part is what bothers them the most.
2009 - How Bad
Biology Killed the Economy
http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/journal/features/features/how-bad-biology-killed-the-economy
An unnatural culture of greed and fear has brought the global economy to
its knees. We need to start playing to our pro-social strengths, says
Frans de Waal.
The CEO of Enron - now in prison - happily applied ‘selfish gene’ logic
to his human capital, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Assuming
that the human species is driven purely by greed and fear, Jeffrey
Skilling produced employees driven by the same motives. Enron imploded
under the mean-spirited weight of his policies, offering a preview of
what was in store for the world economy as a whole.
In the meantime, primatologists were debating altruism, too, and
found the same or similar
empathy
and altruism outside of our own species. Monkeys and apes sometimes take
great risks to help each other, for example against predators (chimps in the
forest defend each other against leopards) or enemies (females defend each other
against violent males). Chimpanzees spontaneously share food with each other,
and in recent experiments it was found that primates will secure rewards for
others even if this does not benefit themselves in any way. Since they didn't
need incentives to do so, it is possible they were doing it for some internal
reward. Perhaps other primates, too, derive pleasure from giving.
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