Pro-sociality without empathy
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2012 |
Outros Autores: | , , |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/1822/69016 |
Resumo: | Empathy, the capacity to recognize and share feelings experienced by another individual, is an important trait in humans, but is not the same as pro-sociality, the tendency to behave so as to benefit another individual. Given the importance of understanding empathy's evolutionary emergence, it is unsurprising that many studies attempt to find evidence for it in other species. To address the question of what should constitute evidence for empathy, we offer a critical comparison of two recent studies of rescuing behaviour that report similar phenomena but are interpreted very differently by their authors. In one of the studies, rescue behaviour in rats was interpreted as providing evidence for empathy, whereas in the other, rescue behaviour in ants was interpreted without reference to sharing of emotions. Evidence for empathy requires showing that actor individuals possess a representation of the receiver's emotional state and are driven by the psychological goal of improving its wellbeing. Proving psychological goal-directedness by current standards involves goal-devaluation and causal sensitivity protocols, which, in our view, have not been implemented in available publications. Empathy has profound significance not only for cognitive and behavioural sciences but also for philosophy and ethics and, in our view, remains unproven outside humans. |
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Pro-sociality without empathyAnimalsAntsBehavior, AnimalGoalsPsychologyRatsBiological EvolutionEmpathySocial Behaviorpro-social behaviourintentionalitygoal-directednessScience & TechnologyEmpathy, the capacity to recognize and share feelings experienced by another individual, is an important trait in humans, but is not the same as pro-sociality, the tendency to behave so as to benefit another individual. Given the importance of understanding empathy's evolutionary emergence, it is unsurprising that many studies attempt to find evidence for it in other species. To address the question of what should constitute evidence for empathy, we offer a critical comparison of two recent studies of rescuing behaviour that report similar phenomena but are interpreted very differently by their authors. In one of the studies, rescue behaviour in rats was interpreted as providing evidence for empathy, whereas in the other, rescue behaviour in ants was interpreted without reference to sharing of emotions. Evidence for empathy requires showing that actor individuals possess a representation of the receiver's emotional state and are driven by the psychological goal of improving its wellbeing. Proving psychological goal-directedness by current standards involves goal-devaluation and causal sensitivity protocols, which, in our view, have not been implemented in available publications. Empathy has profound significance not only for cognitive and behavioural sciences but also for philosophy and ethics and, in our view, remains unproven outside humans.M.V. was funded by a Post-doctoral Fellowship (SFRH/BPD/79311/2011) awarded by the Portuguese Foundationfor Science and TechnologyThe Royal SocietyUniversidade do MinhoVasconcelos, MarcoHollis, KarenNowbahari, EliseKacelnik, Alex20122012-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1822/69016engVasconcelos Marco, Hollis Karen, Nowbahari Elise and Kacelnik Alex. (2012) Pro-sociality without empathy. Biol. Lett. 8910–912. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.05541744-95611744-957X10.1098/rsbl.2012.055422859561https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0554info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-07-21T12:40:32Zoai:repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt:1822/69016Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T19:37:21.189613Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
title |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
spellingShingle |
Pro-sociality without empathy Vasconcelos, Marco Animals Ants Behavior, Animal Goals Psychology Rats Biological Evolution Empathy Social Behavior pro-social behaviour intentionality goal-directedness Science & Technology |
title_short |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
title_full |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
title_fullStr |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
title_sort |
Pro-sociality without empathy |
author |
Vasconcelos, Marco |
author_facet |
Vasconcelos, Marco Hollis, Karen Nowbahari, Elise Kacelnik, Alex |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Hollis, Karen Nowbahari, Elise Kacelnik, Alex |
author2_role |
author author author |
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv |
Universidade do Minho |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Vasconcelos, Marco Hollis, Karen Nowbahari, Elise Kacelnik, Alex |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Animals Ants Behavior, Animal Goals Psychology Rats Biological Evolution Empathy Social Behavior pro-social behaviour intentionality goal-directedness Science & Technology |
topic |
Animals Ants Behavior, Animal Goals Psychology Rats Biological Evolution Empathy Social Behavior pro-social behaviour intentionality goal-directedness Science & Technology |
description |
Empathy, the capacity to recognize and share feelings experienced by another individual, is an important trait in humans, but is not the same as pro-sociality, the tendency to behave so as to benefit another individual. Given the importance of understanding empathy's evolutionary emergence, it is unsurprising that many studies attempt to find evidence for it in other species. To address the question of what should constitute evidence for empathy, we offer a critical comparison of two recent studies of rescuing behaviour that report similar phenomena but are interpreted very differently by their authors. In one of the studies, rescue behaviour in rats was interpreted as providing evidence for empathy, whereas in the other, rescue behaviour in ants was interpreted without reference to sharing of emotions. Evidence for empathy requires showing that actor individuals possess a representation of the receiver's emotional state and are driven by the psychological goal of improving its wellbeing. Proving psychological goal-directedness by current standards involves goal-devaluation and causal sensitivity protocols, which, in our view, have not been implemented in available publications. Empathy has profound significance not only for cognitive and behavioural sciences but also for philosophy and ethics and, in our view, remains unproven outside humans. |
publishDate |
2012 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2012 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/1822/69016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1822/69016 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Vasconcelos Marco, Hollis Karen, Nowbahari Elise and Kacelnik Alex. (2012) Pro-sociality without empathy. Biol. Lett. 8910–912. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0554 1744-9561 1744-957X 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0554 22859561 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0554 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
The Royal Society |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
The Royal Society |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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