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?<\/p>\n
Empathy seems to have evolved in three major steps.<\/p>\n
First, among vertebrates, birds and mammals developed ways of rearing their young, plus forms of pair bonding \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
As neuroscientists put it, the \u201ccomputational requirements\u201d of tuning into the signals of newborn little creatures, and of operating as a couple<\/span> \u2013 a sparrow couple, a mountain lion couple, that is \u2013 helped drive the enlargement of the brain over millions of years. As we all know, when you are in a relationship with someone \u2013 and especially if you are raising a family together \u2013 there\u2019s a lot you have to take into account, negotiate, arrange, anticipate, etc. No wonder brains got bigger.<\/p>\n It may be a source of satisfaction to some that monogamous species typically have the largest brains in proportion to bodyweight!<\/p>\n 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<\/span>, since group size alone doesn\u2019t create a big brain; if it did, cattle would be geniuses.)<\/p>\n In other words, the \u201ccomputational requirements\u201d of dealing with lots of individuals \u2013 the alliances, the adversaries, all the politics! \u2013 in a baboon or ape band also pushed the evolution of the brain.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 and often lethally \u2013 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<\/span> capacities such as empathy, language, cooperative planning, altruism, parent-child attachment, social cognition, and the construction of the personal self in relationships.<\/p>\n 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<\/span> that drove human evolution!<\/p>\n Homo sapiens<\/em> means clever<\/span> ape. We are clever to be sure, but we are clever in order to relate<\/span>. It would be perhaps more accurate to call our species Homo sociabilis<\/em>, the sociable ape.<\/p>\n As Charles Darwin wrote: \u201cAll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Sociability, and the empathy at the heart of it, drove evolution \u2013 in a fundamental sense, it is empathy that has enabled this blog to be posted by me and read by you.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Perhaps an even better name for ourselves would be Homo empathicus<\/em>.<\/p>\n ****************<\/p>\n Rick Hanson, Ph.D.<\/strong>, is a neuropsychologist and founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom<\/a>. A summa cum laude<\/em> graduate of UCLA, he teaches at universities and meditation centers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His work has been featured on the BBC and in Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report, and other major magazines.<\/p>\n Rick\u2019s most recent book is Buddha\u2019s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom<\/em><\/a> (with Rick Mendius, M.D.; Foreword by Dan Siegel, M.D. and Preface by Jack Kornfield, Ph.D.), which has been praised by numerous scholars, therapists, and teachers, including Tara Brach, Ph.D., Roger Walsh, Ph.D., Sharon Salzberg, and Fred Luskin, Ph.D., and is being published in nine additional languages. An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, he edits the Wise Brain Bulletin<\/a>, and his articles have appeared in Tricycle Magazine, Insight Journal, and Inquiring Mind; his Your Wise Brain blog<\/a> is on Huffington Post<\/a>, Psychology Today<\/a>, and other major websites. He has a chapter \u2013 7 Facts about the Brain That Incline the Mind to Joy \u2013 in Measuring the Immeasurable<\/em><\/a>, as well as several audio programs<\/a> with Sounds True. His first book was Mother Nurture: A Mother\u2019s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships<\/em><\/a> (Penguin, 2002)<\/p>\n Rick is currently a trustee of Saybrook University. He also served on the board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center for nine years, and was President of the Board of FamilyWorks, a community agency. He began meditating in 1974, trained in several traditions, and leads a weekly meditation gathering<\/a> in San Rafael, CA. He enjoys rock-climbing and taking a break from emails. He and his wife have two children. For more information, please see his full profile<\/a> at www.RickHanson.net<\/a>. You can find him on the social web at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BuddhasBrain<\/a> and http:\/\/www.YouTube.com\/BuddhasBrain<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Empathy is unusual in the animal kingdom. 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