Empathy is unusual in the animal kingdom, so empathy must have had some major survival benefits for it to have evolved. What might those benefits have been?
Empathy seems to have evolved in three major steps.
First, among vertebrates, birds and mammals developed ways of rearing their young, as well as forms of pair bonding -- sometimes for life. This is very different from the pattern among fish and reptile species, most of which make their way in life alone. Pair bonding and rearing of young organisms increased their survival and was consequently selected for, driving the development of new mental capacities. As neuroscientists put it, the "computational requirements" of tuning in to the signals of newborn little creatures, and of operating as a couple, helped drive the enlargement of the brain over millions of years. As we all know, when you are in a relationship with someone, and especially if you are raising a family together, there's a lot you have to take into account, negotiate, arrange, anticipate, etc. No wonder brains got bigger. (It may be a source of satisfaction to some that monogamous species typically have the largest brains in proportion to bodyweight!)
Second, building on this initial jump in brain size, among primate species, the larger and more complex the social group was, the bigger the brain was. (And the key word here is "social," because group size alone doesn't create a big brain; if it did, cattle would be geniuses.) In other words, the "computational requirements" of dealing with lots of individuals -- the alliances, the adversaries, all the politics! -- in a primate band also pushed the evolution of the brain.
Third, living in small bands in harsh conditions in Africa and breeding mainly within their own bands, our hominin and early human ancestors were under intense evolutionary pressures to develop strong teamwork as a band while they competed fiercely -- and often lethally -- with other bands for scarce resources. Hominins starting making stone tools about 2.5 million years ago, and during the 100,000 generations since, the brain has tripled in size; much of that new neural volume is used for interpersonal capacities, such as empathy, language, cooperative planning, altruism, parent-child attachment, social cognition and the construction of the personal self in relationships.
In sum: More than learning how to use tools, more than being successful at violence, more than adapting to moving out of the forest into the grasslands of Africa, it was the complexities of relationships that drove human evolution!
Homo sapiens means "clever ape." We are clever, to be sure, but we are clever in order to relate. It would be perhaps more accurate to call our species Homo sociabilis, the sociable ape.
As Charles Darwin wrote, "All sentient beings developed through natural selection in such a way that pleasant sensations serve as their guide, and especially the pleasure derived from sociability and from loving our families." Sociability, and the empathy at the heart of it, drove evolution; in a fundamental sense, it is empathy that has enabled this blog to be posted by me and read by you.
Empathy is in our bones. For example, infants will cry at the tape-recorded sound of other infants crying, but not at a recording of their own cries. And speaking of crying, as adults, our tear glands will automatically start producing tears when we hear the crying of others, even if we have no sense of tearing up ourselves.
Perhaps an even better name for ourselves would be Homo empathicus.
Mark Changizi, Ph.D.: Music's Ability To Change The Brain
Mark Changizi, Ph.D.: Is Language a Technology?
Rick Hanson, Ph.D.: How to Tune In to Others
Empathy - I feel with you
Compassion - How can I serve ? This is for people or situations you have a problem with i.e. relatives, addicts, politicians. It will keep you out of judgement and being present for the situation.
The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy
The Culture of Empathy website is the largest internet portal for resources and information about the values of empathy and compassion. It contains articles, conferences, definitions, experts, history, interviews, videos, science and much more about empathy and compassion.
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com
There's also a 1 hour video interview with Rich Hanson on the home page.
I posted a link to your article to our Empathy Center Facebook page.
http://Facebook.com/EmpathyCenter
keep up the good work.
Morality predates humanity, and can be seen in the behavior of our closest living genetic relatives, the chimps and bonobos. These traits developed as a survival tactic in communities that hunted animals. Reciprocity and the golden rule increased chances of survival in a tribal setting. The key element to making this system work was accountability. If you did not play by the rules, you were easily identified and ostracized – a death sentence.
As I see it, the real issue in our present culture appears to be the lack of accountability, which allows many to get away with antisocial behavior without consequences. While I am not a fan of a bloated government, one of their roles should be to enforce accountability through the legal system. Pass laws that criminalize immoral behavior, and permit corporate employees to be held personally accountable. Jail sentences might be the modern equivalent of tribal rejection.
For research and touching stories of empathy in the wild, I recommend "The Age of Empathy" and "Primates and Philosophers" by Frans de Waal, a prominent primatologist.
As outlined in "The Wellness Project," the field of zoopharmacognosy (animal self healing) has persuaded me that wellness-supporting behavior is also instinctual, but has been distorted by our modern concept of health care.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
Montecito Wellness
A research organization
The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy
The Culture of Empathy website is the largest internet portal for resources and information about the values of empathy and compassion. It contains articles, conferences, definitions, experts, history, interviews, videos, science and much more about empathy and compassion.
http://CultureOfEmpathy.com