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In the study, he trained the rats to push a lever to receive their food. Then, in a twisted change, he fixed the lever to a a floor in the neighboring cage. Every time the rat would push the lever, the rat in the other cage would get an electric shock. Rats that had previously experienced shocks were very empathetic to the rat in the other cage.
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Adults become more sensitive to pain after watching other mice in pain, the first sign of empathy in non-primate mammals...
Empathy is "an evolutionary mechanism to maintain social cohesion. If you're evolving and you're in a group, you're more sensitive to the pain of other members in a group," explained James Harris at Johns Hopkins University... Greater empathy between individuals who are familiar goes back to the early evolution of maternal care in mammals, according to de Waal. (img http://bit.ly/hjDwWZ)
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Putting empathy under the microscope he explores four new ideas: firstly, that we all lie somewhere on an empathy spectrum, from high to low, from six degrees to zero degrees. Secondly that, deep within the brain lies the ‘empathy circuit’. How this circuit functions determines where we lie on the empathy spectrum. Thirdly, that empathy is not only something we learn but that there are also genes associated with empathy. And fourthly, while a lack of empathy leads to mostly negative results, is it always negative?
's comment April 17, 2011 6:24 PM
Girls are (mostly) born with an intuition gene, which makes empathy a natural part of their make-up.
Boys are (mostly) born without this gene, and must be taught during the earliest years of three to five years old, to feel the pain of others and understand the results of their own cruelty. Boys who are not taught these skills, and girls who do not have their natural inclination reinforced by similar training, run the risk of poor empathy, or NO empathy. They can be taught at a later time, but having a natural reaction and having to find a taught reaction, are two different things. Of course, both boys and girls can be born with the genetic abnormality that produces sociopaths, or can have childhood experiences that amount to catastrophe, and this can also produce sociopaths - mainly in boys but occasionally in girls.
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This time of atonement, renewal and redemption is a wonderful opportunity to show compassion for animals - especially those who are subjected to intensive confinement, painful mutilations, and merciless deaths in factory farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses
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We can learn about the origins of our sociality, both in terms of hierarchies, competition and power games and in terms of empathy and morality. We share both with our animal relatives, both the good and the bad, and should stop blaming everything we don't like about ourselves on our biology ("we're acting like animals!") while claiming all good we do for our noble human nature. All of our tendencies evolved for a reason among the social primates, and once we understand this, we will better understand the dynamics of our own societies.
's comment April 15, 2011 4:22 AM
The above statement is true. We may be top of the food chain, but we are still animals on this planet, and there are many other animals that are close to us in intelligence and empathy.
What is more noble; a man or women who adopts a shelter animal, or an animal that lays down its life for its human? I think they are both noble, but the animal that is willing to die to save its human is more noble, because it knows the risk and takes it.
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Youngsters are ambassadors for the future. We must teach them well so they learn how to make the planet a more peaceful and compassionate place for animals and humans, and to keep their dreams alive in a challenging world. By showing children the power of compassion and empathy, we can also learn a lot from them. It`s a two-way street.
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In addition to treating each other with great empathy, bonobos’ reposeful demeanors may give them different brains from chimps in another way — perhaps through their ability to learn.
I’m speculating a bit here, but neural brain differences between bonobos and chimps highlighted in the Yerkes research may make it clearer why bonobos represent a few of the most advanced cases of language acquisition in the animal kingdom.
's comment April 16, 2011 10:48 PM
I have seen videos of bonobos interacting and their empathic approach to researchers is very evident and most wonderful.
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It turns out vegetarians and vegans might just be wired differently than other people. According to Daniel R. Rowes of Psychology Today, a recent Italian study shows that empathy is what really separates vegetarians and omnivores. The study was "based on the observation that vegetarians and vegans tend to base their decision to avoid animal products on ethical grounds." This is an accurate observation, as Vegetarian Times reported in 2008 that 54 percent of American vegetarians cited animal welfare as the main reason they gave up meat. The Italian researchers wanted to determine if the empathy vegetarians and vegans extend towards animals applied to other humans as well.
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As Manager of Humane Education at the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix, Dr. Kris Haley uses the Six Pillars of Character to teach kids about having empathy and compassion for animals – and each other.
What more important work is there than teaching an expanded concept of empathy to kids through the extraordinary lessons of animals? If each heart had empathy, we truly could change the world! The Six Pillars of Character, deepened with a humane dimension, can do just that!
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From
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A notable lack of aggression in a species of apes may be due to hard-wired brain structure that makes them mellower than other primates, a U.S. study says. Bonobo brains, in comparison to chimp brains, displayed bigger, more developed regions thought to be vital for feeling empathy, perceiving distress in others and feeling anxiety, Rilling said.
One of those regions, the right anterior insula, is involved in generating empathy. People who have suffered damage to this region notably lack the ability to perceive how others are feeling,
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Scientists have long theorized that contagious yawning indicated an underlying empathy among individuals who share the yawn, much in the same way that seeing someone laugh or cry can make you feel happy or sad. Yerkes researchers Matthew Campbell and Frans de Waal have strengthened this hypothesis by observing the same effect in chimps.
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The striking absence of aggression among one species of ape, bonobos, may be hard-wired into their brains, a study suggests. Compared with those of chimps, bonobo brains displayed bigger, more developed regions thought to be vital for feeling empathy, perceiving distress in others and feeling anxiety, Rilling said.
One of these structures, the right anterior insula, is crucial for generating empathy, as people with damage to this region notably lack the ability to perceive how others are feeling, Rilling said.
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The researchers showed chimpanzees a video of other chimpanzees and found they yawned more frequently after watching a chimpanzee from their own group yawn than a chimpanzee from another group — evidence that they were more influenced by others with whom they empathized.
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The ability to empathize with others is partially determined by genes, according to new research on mice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oregon Health and Science University . .
In the study, a highly social strain of mice learned to associate a sound played in a specific cage with something negative simply by hearing a mouse in that cage respond with squeaks of distress. (img http://bit.ly/hjDwWZ)
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One of the concepts we at IHE often explore with our students, whether from our graduate programs, or elementary-aged children, is the circle of compassion we each have, who/what is included there, and ways to expand our circle of compassion to include others we hadn't previously considered, including, animals and the natural world. (Circle of Compassion and Alien in the Ethical Universe are examples of two of our activities that explore this concept.)
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Simon Baron-Cohen, expert in autism and developmental psychopathology, has always wanted to isolate and understand the factors that cause people to treat others as if they were mere objects. In this event he proposes a radical shift, turning the focus away from evil and on to the central factor, empathy. Unlike the concept of evil, he argues, empathy has real explanatory power.
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Sponsored by Edwin Rutsch: Empathy Guide Services These one-to-one empathy sessions support; well-being, healing, practicing to be a better listener and supporting you in creating empathic environments in your relationships, family, school, work, communities and beyond. Subscribe emailed Empathy Newsletter Sections * Front Page * Compassionate Communications (NVC) * Curriculums * Empathic Design * Justice * Self-Empathy & Self-Compassion * etc. Please Click 'Follow' to receive updates. Thanks so much. Edwin Rutsch, Editor
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Researchers have found a group of monkeys that seem to get pleasure from giving. The idea that it's better to give than receive may not be limited to just humans.
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Many animals also display wide-ranging emotions, including joy, happiness, empathy, compassion, grief, and even resentment and embarrassment. It’s not surprising that animals—especially, but not only, mammals—share many emotions with us because we also share brain structures—located in the limbic system—that are the seat of our emotions. In many ways, human emotions are the gifts of our animal ancestors.
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Connections are being drawn between animal abuse and other forms of violence.
Neuroscientists are now beginning to get a fix on the physical underpinnings of empathy. A research team at the University of Chicago headed by Jean Decety, a neuroscientist who specializes in the mechanisms behind empathy and emotional self-regulation, has performed fMRI scans on 16-to-18-year-old boys with aggressive-conduct disorder and on another group of similarly aged boys who exhibited no unusual signs of aggression... “We’re really just beginning to have an inkling of the neurophysiology of empathy,” Lockwood told me. “I think empathy is essentially innate, but I also think empathy can be learned, and I know it can be destroyed. That’s why having a better understanding of the neurophysiology will really help us. Just doing a social intervention on a person doesn’t do any good if you’re not aware of certain physiological deficits.
's comment April 11, 2011 12:55 AM
A local prison has a program in place that allows violent prisoners to visit and care for puppies or kittens.
The finding have been very good, with even the most violent offender able to become emotionally attached to their pet, to the extent of an offender weeping openly when a puppy was injured.
's comment April 16, 2011 10:54 PM
However, it is what happens to animals when a young person find him/herself in a position of power and control, that can tell us a lot about the future of the children.
Children who treat their animals with kindness, love, respect, and empathy, create in the animals and for their futures, a wonderful bond and a future of the same behavior. Children who abuse or kill their pets, may on the one hand, by a symptom of abuse the child may be suffering, or on the other hand, predict a sociopath in the making.
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Empathy has long been considered to be a purely human trait. After all, the prerequisites for empathy are pro-social behaviour and intelligence. While empathy is a trait that people might be willing to acknowledge in animals of a higher intelligence, such as apes, they may be hard-pressed to agree to the occurrence of empathy in animals such as birds.
Recently, researchers from the University of Vienna set out to study whether empathetic friendship was possible in the Common Raven, after the ravens were observed consoling flock mates that were attacked by an aggressor.
's comment April 16, 2011 11:00 PM
In Canada, the raven's cousin is the crow, and crow are highly intelligent, benevolent to those who treat them in a friendly manner, and generally, good neighbors - unless they are protecting their fledglings, at which point they lose their minds and attack anything or one who might be nearby.
Luckily, this only lasts a week or two and passes who the fledglings learn to fly and are off the ground. Then the crow remember who is nice and who is not.
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Emotions are complex things. Sometimes we are not sure why we feel the way we do or have the reactions we have. Perhaps, it is for this reason that humans assume that they have exclusive rights on emotions. However, animal behaviourists and ecologists are now proving that emotions, even complex ones such as grief, depression and the ability to display kindness, are experienced by many animals.
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Join this event now and invite your friends. Let's raise awareness and hold a special day to help promote and teach Empathy and Compassion for all Animals! Stop the abuse, beatings, cruelty, fighting, neglect, suffering and torture of animals around the world. Share your personal comments, stories, photos or videos of feeling empathy and compassion for animals. Help generate ideas for how we can build a culture of empathy.
Abuse of animals, children, woman, minorities, as well as, conflicts, wars and genocide, etc. are all related and come from a deficit of empathy and compassion. Developing and promoting these values can heal the world. Let's call on the United Nations General Assembly and the UN Secretary-General to declare every October 2, an International Day of Empathy and Compassion.
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Scientists don't know for sure why yawning is contagious in humans, but the phenomenon is recognized as real. Researchers suspect it has to do with empathy and is therefore similar to our propensity to laugh (or cry) with others. Other primates are known to catch yawns, and last year a study revealed that dogs can catch a human yawn.
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Contagious yawning is not just a marker of sleepiness or boredom. For chimpanzees, it may actually be a sign of a social connection between individuals. New research at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, may help scientists understand empathy, the mechanism thought to underlie contagious yawning, in both chimpanzees and humans. The research also may help show how social biases strengthen or weaken empathy.
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