|
September
How Did Humans Become Empathic? Empathy is unusual
in the animal kingdom
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, plus 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 into the signals of newborn
little creatures, and of operating as a couple - a
sparrow couple, a mountain lion couple, that is -
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, the bigger the brain.
(And the key word here is social, since 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 baboon or ape band also pushed the evolution of
the brain.
Third, living in small bands in harsh conditions
in Africa, and breeding mainly within their own
band, our hominid 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. Hominids 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.
©2010, Rick
Hanson
* * *
As they say in Tibet, if you take care of the
minutes,
the years will take care of themselves.
Rick Hanson
is a neuropsychologist and author of
Buddha's
Brain: The practical neuroscience of
happiness, love
& wisdom with
Rick Mendius and Mother Nurture: A Mother's
Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate
Relationships. A summa cum laude graduate of
UCLA who received his doctorate from the Wright
Institute in Berkeley, CA, he founded the
Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and
Contemplative Wisdom, edits the Wise Brain
Bulletin, and writes a blog for PsychologyToday.com
as well as a weekly newsletter called Just One
Thing; his articles have also appeared in Tricycle
Magazine, Insight Journal, Inquiring Mind, and
Buddhist Geeks on-line magazine. He teaches
regularly at universities and meditation centers in
Europe, Australia, and North America, and has audio
programs with Sounds True. Rick began meditating in
1974 and has practiced in several traditions; he
was a board member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
for nine years and is a graduate of its Community
Dharma Leaders program. He leads a regular
meditation gathering in San Rafael, CA. Currently a
Trustee of Saybrook University, he was also
President of the Board of FamilyWorks, a non-profit
agency. He and his wife have two adult children.
www.RickHanson.net
Contact
Us |
Disclaimer
| Privacy
Statement
Menstuff®
Directory
Menstuff® is a registered trademark of Gordon
Clay
©1996-2023, Gordon Clay
|
