Putting the Altruism Back Into Altruism: the Evolution of Empathy
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In Praise of Empathy: the Glue That Holds Caring Communities Together in a Fractured World
Canadian Journal of Family and Youth, 11(1), 2019, pp. 234-291 ISSN 1718-9748© University of Alberta http://ejournals,library,ualberta.ca/index/php/cjfy In Praise of Empathy: The Glue that holds Caring Communities Together in a Fractured World. Irene G. Wilkinson Abstract In a tumultuous world where populism is on the rise as the result of an enraged, disenchanted, misguided and susceptible populace, empathy, one of the most vital of our moral virtues, is in serious jeopardy. Fear, prejudice and the rise of the extreme right has provoked a number of nay- sayers to draw our attention to what they believe to be the darker side of empathy, its biases and its vulnerability to subversion. This paper examines empathy, what it is, how it feels, the neural and environmental basis for its development, our moral obligation to nurture it in our children and how it may be induced in the case of empathy deficiencies. It considers the influences of gender and hormones on the expression of empathy and its relationship with sympathy and compassion. Also discussed are the properties of empathy as a motivational, socioemotional mechanism, that evokes kindness, caring, compassion and understanding in each of us, and its potential to neutralize the negativism, cruelty, violence and aggression, so prevalent in the world today. Although her formal qualifications are in biomedical science (her thesis on methods for demonstrating changes in the lining cells of the human larynx won her a Fellowship of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences in 1973), in addition to cancer research, Irene Gregory Wilkinson has worked for much of her life in fine and performing arts, broadcasting and in educational and social skills support for children at risk. -
The Neural Pathways, Development and Functions of Empathy
EVIDENCE-BASED RESEARCH ON CHARITABLE GIVING SPI FUNDED The Neural Pathways, Development and Functions of Empathy Jean Decety University of Chicago Working Paper No.: 125- SPI April 2015 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy Jean Decety Empathy reflects an innate ability to perceive and be sensitive to and relative intensity without confusion between self and the emotional states of others coupled with a motivation to care other; secondly, empathic concern, which corresponds to for their wellbeing. It has evolved in the context of parental care the motivation to caring for another’s welfare; and thirdly, for offspring as well as within kinship. Current work perspective taking (or cognitive empathy), the ability to demonstrates that empathy is underpinned by circuits consciously put oneself into the mind of another and connecting the brainstem, amygdala, basal ganglia, anterior understand what that person is thinking or feeling. cingulate cortex, insula and orbitofrontal cortex, which are conserved across many species. Empirical studies document Proximate mechanisms of empathy that empathetic reactions emerge early in life, and that they are Each of these emotional, motivational, and cognitive not automatic. Rather they are heavily influenced and modulated facets of empathy relies on specific mechanisms, which by interpersonal and contextual factors, which impact behavior reflect evolved abilities of humans and their ancestors to and cognitions. However, the mechanisms supporting empathy detect and respond to social signals necessary for surviv- are also flexible and amenable to behavioral interventions that ing, reproducing, and maintaining well-being. While it is can promote caring beyond kin and kith. -
Empathic Concern Is Part of a More General Communal Emotion
1 Empathic Concern is Part of A More General Communal Emotion Janis H. Zickfeld1*, Thomas W. Schubert12, Beate Seibt12, Alan P. Fiske3 1Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. 2Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal. 3Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. In press at Frontiers. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in Frontiers. *Correspondence: Janis H. Zickfeld [email protected] 2 Abstract Seeing someone in need may evoke a particular kind of closeness that has been conceptualized as sympathy or empathic concern (which is distinct from other empathy constructs). In other contexts, when people suddenly feel close to others, or observe others suddenly feeling closer to each other, this sudden closeness tends to evoke an emotion often labeled in vernacular English as being moved, touched, or heart-warming feelings. Recent theory and empirical work indicates that this is a distinct emotion; the construct is named kama muta. Is empathic concern for people in need simply an expression of the much broader tendency to respond with kama muta to all kinds of situations that afford closeness, such as reunions, kindness, and expressions of love? Across 16 studies sampling 2918 participants, we explored whether empathic concern is associated with kama muta. Meta-analyzing the association between ratings of state being moved and trait empathic concern revealed an effect size of, r(3631) = .35 [95% CI: .29, .41]. In addition, trait empathic concern was also associated with self-reports of the three sensations that have been shown to be reliably indicative of kama muta: weeping, chills, and bodily feelings of warmth. -
CONFERENCE AT-A-GLANCE THURSDAY, APRIL 12 3:00 P.M
Conference Schedule CONFERENCE AT-A-GLANCE THURSDAY, APRIL 12 3:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Registration Narragansett Pre-Function 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. The NRHC Game Night Providence Ballroom 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Big Picture Discussion Bristol/Kent FRIDAY, APRIL 13 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Registration Narragansett Pre-Function 9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. City as Text Intro and Speaker Narragansett Ballroom 10:00 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. City as Text Providence 3:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. City as Text Reflection Narragansett Ballroom 5:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. Graduate and Transfer Fair Waterplace Ballroom 6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. Student Art Show Waterplace Ballroom 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Banquet Narragansett Ballroom 9:30 p.m. - midnight Open Mic Night Narragansett Ballroom SATURDAY, APRIL 14 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast Narragansett Ballroom 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Poster Session I Narragansett Ballroom 7:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Registration Narragansett Pre-Function 9:05 a.m. - 10:20 a.m. Session I Papers and Roundtables Breakout Rooms 10:35 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. Session II Papers and Roundtables Breakout Rooms 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Presidential Lunch and Address Narragansett Ballroom 1:40 p.m. - 2:55 p.m. Session III Papers and Roundtables Breakout Rooms 3:10 p.m. - 4:25 p.m. -
1 the Development of Empathy: How, When, and Why Nicole M. Mcdonald & Daniel S. Messinger University of Miami Department Of
1 The Development of Empathy: How, When, and Why Nicole M. McDonald & Daniel S. Messinger University of Miami Department of Psychology 5665 Ponce de Leon Dr. Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA 2 Empathy is a potential psychological motivator for helping others in distress. Empathy can be defined as the ability to feel or imagine another person’s emotional experience. The ability to empathize is an important part of social and emotional development, affecting an individual’s behavior toward others and the quality of social relationships. In this chapter, we begin by describing the development of empathy in children as they move toward becoming empathic adults. We then discuss biological and environmental processes that facilitate the development of empathy. Next, we discuss important social outcomes associated with empathic ability. Finally, we describe atypical empathy development, exploring the disorders of autism and psychopathy in an attempt to learn about the consequences of not having an intact ability to empathize. Development of Empathy in Children Early theorists suggested that young children were too egocentric or otherwise not cognitively able to experience empathy (Freud 1958; Piaget 1965). However, a multitude of studies have provided evidence that very young children are, in fact, capable of displaying a variety of rather sophisticated empathy related behaviors (Zahn-Waxler et al. 1979; Zahn-Waxler et al. 1992a; Zahn-Waxler et al. 1992b). Measuring constructs such as empathy in very young children does involve special challenges because of their limited verbal expressiveness. Nevertheless, young children also present a special opportunity to measure constructs such as empathy behaviorally, with less interference from concepts such as social desirability or skepticism. -
Testing the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
TESTING THE EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS By Benjamin T. Mills Feelings of empathic concern for a person in need predicts helping of that person, but there are two competing theoretical explanations for this helping motivation. According to the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (EAH), the motivation produced by empathic concern is altruistic. However, an alternative explanation for this relationship is that empathic concern produces one or more egoistic motivations that alone or simultaneously are responsible for helping. The goal of the present study was to test the EAH against this simultaneous egoistic hypothesis (SEH). Specifically, 160 undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh were told that they and another ostensible student were participating in a study designed to analyze the effects of communication with another person on reactions to tasks and task performance. Participants received a written communication from the ostensible student who discussed a recent breakup with a significant other. Perspective taking was manipulated to produce feelings of empathic concern for the ostensible student. Also manipulated across ten experimental conditions were dissimilarity to the ostensible student in need, likelihood of need improvement of the student, and ease of psychological escape from the person in need. Empathic concern for the person in need was measured, as was whether participants requested feedback about the ostensible student’s performance on a task that could potentially result in a positive outcome for the ostensible student. Results revealed evidence that all manipulations except for the psychological escape manipulation were successful. Consideration of feedback requests across all ten experimental conditions provided no clear evidence of predictive superiority of either the EAH or SEH explanations. -
Evolution of Cooperation Cooperation Vs
Cooperation Main points for today Cooperation • Sociality, cooperation, mutualism, altruism - definitions • Kin selection – Hamilton’s rule, how to calculate r Why is it surprising and • Group selection – the price equation, green beards, and assortment how does it evolve • Classic examples – alarm calls, helpers at the nest, social insects, predator inspection, food sharing Definitions ‘Social behavior’ is NOT cooperative behavior Cooperation: Displaying a behavior that benefits another Group living vs. cooperation individual. (If both benefit that's mutualism.) Sociality-no- Altruism: cooperation Displaying a behavior that benefits another and individual at a cost to oneself. cooperation- Sociality/social behavior: no-sociality Living in a group/behavior in interactions with conspecifics I define ‘sociality’ as living with other individuals of the same species at least semi-permanently. Why individuals do not sacrifice themselves The evolutionary mystery for the good of the group How can altruism evolve? • If the recipient of the cooperative/altruistic act benefits, it is going to leave more offspring . • The actor however is not going to leave more offspring, or even fewer offspring – fewer altruists in the next generation . If such behavior is heritable, and it goes on over many generations, it will ultimately die out. 1 The evolutionary mystery Evolution of altruism Altruism: 5 possible Group selection explanations The Price equation : shows how variance partitioned among individuals and groups leads to selection • Group selection -
The Nature of Human Altruism
review article The nature of human altruism Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher University of Zu¨rich, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, Blu¨mlisalpstrasse 10, CH-8006 Zu¨rich, Switzerland ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Some of the most fundamental questions concerning our evolutionary origins, our social relations, and the organization of society are centred around issues of altruism and selfishness. Experimental evidence indicates that human altruism is a powerful force and is unique in the animal world. However, there is much individual heterogeneity and the interaction between altruists and selfish individuals is vital to human cooperation. Depending on the environment, a minority of altruists can force a majority of selfish individuals to cooperate or, conversely, a few egoists can induce a large number of altruists to defect. Current gene-based evolutionary theories cannot explain important patterns of human altruism, pointing towards the importance of both theories of cultural evolution as well as gene–culture co-evolution. uman societies represent a huge anomaly in the animal a psychological13—definition of altruism as being costly acts that world1. They are based on a detailed division of labour confer economic benefits on other individuals. The role of kinship and cooperation between genetically unrelated individ- in human altruism is not discussed because it is well-known that uals in large groups. This is obviously true for modern humans share kin-driven altruism with many other animals14,15.We societies with their large organizations and nation states, will show that the interaction between selfish and strongly recipro- Hbut it also holds for hunter-gatherers, who typically have dense cal individuals is essential for understanding of human cooperation. -
Altruism Researchers Must Cooperate Biologists Studying the Evolution of Social Behaviour Are at Loggerheads
COMMENT PHYSICS How the media COLLECTIVES Leadership EXHIBITION New show EVOLUTION Responses to misconstrued Steven tips learned from house- highlights 300 years of recent reappraisal of kin Hawking’s latest book p.657 hunting bees p.658 science in Berlin p.660 selection p.661 Altruism researchers must cooperate Biologists studying the evolution of social behaviour are at loggerheads. The disputes — mainly over methods — are holding back the field, says Samir Okasha. ast month, 30 leading evolutionary now calling for a radical rethink, arguing that I contend that there is little to argue about. biologists met in Amsterdam to discuss kin selection is theoretically problematic, and Much of the current antagonism stems a burgeoning controversy. The question has insufficient empirical support, and that from the fact that different researchers are PARKINS D. Lof how altruistic behaviour can arise through alternative models better account for the evo- focusing on different aspects of the same phe- natural selection, once regarded as settled, is lution of social behaviour2. Others regard kin nomenon, and are using different methods. In again the subject of heated debate. selection as solid, and the rethink as unneces- allowing a plurality of approaches — a healthy The question dividing biologists is the sary and potentially retrograde. thing in science — to descend into tribal- degree to which inclusive fitness theory, or kin Rival camps have emerged, each endors- ism, biologists risk causing serious damage selection, explains the evolution of altruism ing a different approach to social evolution. to the field of social evolution, and potentially — in which an animal provides a benefit to Heated exchanges have occurred at confer- to evolutionary biology in general. -
Sacredness in an Experimental Chamber
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2006) 29, 161–209 Printed in the United States of America Moneyastool,moneyasdrug:The biological psychology of a strong incentive Stephen E. G. Lea University of Exeter, School of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom [email protected] http://www.exeter.ac.uk/SEGLea Paul Webley University of Exeter, School of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom [email protected] http://www.exeter.ac.uk/pwebley Abstract: Why are people interested in money? Specifically, what could be the biological basis for the extraordinary incentive and reinforcing power of money, which seems to be unique to the human species? We identify two ways in which a commodity which is of no biological significance in itself can become a strong motivator. The first is if it is used as a tool, and by a metaphorical extension this is often applied to money: it is used instrumentally, in order to obtain biologically relevant incentives. Second, substances can be strong motivators because they imitate the action of natural incentives but do not produce the fitness gains for which those incentives are instinctively sought. The classic examples of this process are psychoactive drugs, but we argue that the drug concept can also be extended metaphorically to provide an account of money motivation. From a review of theoretical and empirical literature about money, we conclude that (i) there are a number of phenomena that cannot be accounted for by a pure Tool Theory of money motivation; (ii) supplementing Tool Theory with a Drug Theory enables the anomalous phenomena to be explained; and (iii) the human instincts that, according to a Drug Theory, money parasitizes include trading (derived from reciprocal altruism) and object play. -
Empathy in Elephants
Do elephants show empathy? Article (Accepted Version) Bates, Lucy A, Lee, Phyllis C, Njiraini, Norah, Poole, Joyce H, Sayialel, Katito, Sayialel, Soila, Moss, Cynthia J and Byrne, Richard W (2008) Do elephants show empathy? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 15 (10-11). pp. 204-225. ISSN 1355-8250 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/81549/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Do elephants show empathy? Lucy A. Bates1, Phyllis C. -
Kin Selection Raymond Hames University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected]
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology, Department of Summer 8-2015 Kin Selection Raymond Hames University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/anthropologyfacpub Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Biological Psychology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Social Psychology Commons Hames, Raymond, "Kin Selection" (2015). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 128. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/anthropologyfacpub/128 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published (as Chapter 19) in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Second Edition, edited by David M. Buss, pp 505-523. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Used by permission. digitalcommons.unl.edu Kin Selection Raymond Hames University of Nebraska-Lincoln Introduction When Hamilton (1964) published his theory of inclusive fitness it had no immediate im- pact in the social and behavioral sciences, even though ethnographers knew kinship to be a universally fundamental factor in human social organization, especially in egalitarian so- cieties in which humans have spent nearly all their evolutionary history. In many ways, it was a theory that perhaps anthropologists should have devised: Anthropologists knew kinship fundamentally structured cooperation, identity, coalition formation, resource ex- change, marriage, and group membership in traditional societies.