Challenges in the comparative study of empathy and related phenomena in animals

Abstract

The aim of this review is to discuss recent arguments and findings in the comparative study of empathy. Based on a multidisciplinary approach including psychology and ethology, we review the non-human animal literature concerning theoretical frameworks, methodology, and research outcomes. One specific objective is to highlight discrepancies between theory and empirical findings, and to discuss ambiguities present in current data and their interpretation. In particular, we focus on emotional contagion and its experimental investigation, and on consolation and targeted helping as measures for sympathy. Additionally, we address the feasibility of comparing across species with behavioural data alone. One main conclusion of our review is that animal research on empathy still faces the challenge of closing the gap between theoretical concepts and empirical evidence. To advance our knowledge, we propose to focus more on the emotional basis of empathy, rather than on possibly ambiguous behavioural indicators, and we provide suggestions to overcome the limitations of previous research.

Auditory Contagious Yawning Is Highest Between Friends and Family Members: Support to the Emotional Bias Hypothesis

“…Our study adds to the discussion over the mechanisms underlying the social asymmetry in yawn contagion (for a critical reviews: see Adriaense et al, 2020;Palagi et al, 2020), by showing that yawn contagion is probably associated with bottom-up, rather than with top-down, selective attention. Bottom-up attention is primarily lead by the sensory perception of the eliciting stimulus whereas top-down, selective attention is a voluntary, sustained process in which a particular item is selected internally and focused upon or examined (Katsuki and Constantinidis, 2014).…”

Coping with mortality: responses of monkeys and great apes to collapsed, inanimate and dead conspecifics

“…However, the affected individuals in these situations can move and emit sounds, so partners may respond to their signs of distress without the need for a mental representation of their emotional states. If compassion implies an understanding of distress that involves empathic perspectivetaking or the sharing of feelings (Cheney & Seyfarth 2007;Boesch 2012;Adriense et al 2020), then responses to the behavioural expression of distress are not proof of compassion. On the other hand, there is converging evidence that great apes such as chimpanzees are capable of targeted helping and empathic perspective-taking, and can thus apprehend the suffering of conspecifics (de Waal 2008;Boesch 2012;Pérez-Manrique & Gomila 2018;Sato et al 2019).…”

How Dogs Perceive Humans and How Humans Should Treat Their Pet Dogs: Linking Cognition With Ethics

“…First results indicate, for example, that there is "empathetically-motivated prosocial helping in dogs" and that dogs "are most likely to provide help to a human in need if they are able to focus on the human's need instead of their own personal distress" (Sanford et al, 2018, 386). However, such results stand against mixed evidence on dogs' helping behavior and against the need to clarify the underlying emotions and motivations (see e.g., Macpherson and Roberts, 2006, or the discussions in Sanford et al, 2018and Adriaense et al, 2020. Because empathy could motivate moral behavior like helping, philosophers of animal minds and animal ethicists discuss it as a moral emotion that animals could possess (Rowlands, 2012;Monsó, 2015Monsó, , 2017Monsó et al, 2018;Benz-Schwarzburg et al, 2019).…”