Ape Empathy: BBS Call for Commentators
PSYCOLOQUY
Below is the abstract of a forthcoming BBS target article
Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases
by
Stephanie D. Preston & Frans B. M. de Waal
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Preston/
or
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Preston/Preston.pdf
This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.
Commentators must be BBS Associates or nominated by a BBS Associate. To
be considered as a commentator for this article, to suggest other
appropriate commentators, or for information about how to become a BBS
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this article, an electronic draft is retrievable from the online
BBSPrints Archive, at the URL that follows the abstract below.
_____________________________________________________________
Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases
Stephanie D. Preston
Department of Psychology
3210 Tolman Hall #1650
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650
USA
spre...@socrates.berkeley.edu
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~spreston
Frans B. M. de Waal
Living Links,
Yerkes Primate Center and Psychology Department,
Emory University,
Atlanta, GA 30322
USA
dew...@rmy.emory.edu
http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/
KEYWORDS:
altruism; cognitive empathy; comparative; emotion;
emotional contagion; empathy; evolution; human; perception-action;
perspective taking;
ABSTRACT:
There is disagreement in the literature about the exact nature of the
phenomenon of empathy. There are emotional, cognitive, and conditioning
views, applying in varying degrees across species. An adequate description
of the ultimate and proximate mechanism can integrate these views.
Proximately, the perception of an object's state activates the subject's
corresponding representations, which in turn activate somatic and
autonomic responses. This mechanism supports basic behaviors (e.g., alarm,
social facilitation, vicariousness of emotions, mother-infant
responsiveness, and the modeling of competitors and predators) that are
crucial for the reproductive success of animals living in groups. The
"Perception-Action Model" (PAM) together with an understanding of how
representations change with experience can explain the major empirical
effects in the literature (similarity, familiarity, past experience,
explicit teaching and salience). It can also predict a variety of empathy
disorders. The interaction between the PAM and prefrontal functioning can
also explain different levels of empathy across species and age groups.
This view can advance our evolutionary understanding of empathy beyond
inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism and can explain different levels
of empathy across individuals, species, stages of development, and
situations.
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Preston/
or
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Preston/Preston.pdf
___________________________________________________________
Please do not prepare a commentary yet. Just let us know, after having
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on what aspect of the article. We will then let you know whether it was
possible to include your name on the final formal list of invitees.
_______________________________________________________________________
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(3) Call for Book Nominations for BBS Multiple Book Review
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PSYCOLOQUY is a refereed electronic journal (ISSN 1055-0143)
sponsored by the American Psychological Association
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