EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON EMPATHY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Chimpanzees console victims of attack. If another chimpanzee has been hurt in a fight, they will approach, and put an arm around them. They also show targeted help in which they provide others with assistance they need, such as saving them from drowning or supporting an injured companion. Several investigators have considered it unlikely that empathy arose in recent evolutionary history. Indeed, there is experimental evidence for emotional contagion in other animals, such as rats and monkeys. Studies on our closest relatives, the anthropoid apes, are particularly rich, suggesting more intelligent forms of empathy than in monkeys. The present study is entirely behavioral, with both an observational and experimental component. Observations of spontaneous behavior among chimpanzees in two social groups are conducted so as to measure social responses to hurt or distressed individuals, such as individuals who have lost a fight. The experimental component of the project seeks to test responses to social sequences on video, particularly the preferred outcome of sequences, which outcomes may range from escalation of aggression to reassurance provided by others to a victim of attack. This work will take advantage of six well-trained chimpanzees who have been used in the past in computerized (joystick mediated) tasks. They will select images on a computer screen, and we will measure what kind of emotional contents or outcomes they prefer. The objective is to see if they care about what happens to others.