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  • Empathy: it’s not just for humans anymore!

  • Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and if youve been on the internet the past few days, then

  • you mightve seen this story about Koko the gorilla mourning the death of Robin Williams.

  • Koko is part of California’s Gorilla Foundation, and she’s well-known for her fluency in

  • English. She’s capable of signing and communicating over 1,000 words in English.

  • Back in 2004, Williams visited Koko to film a PSA for the foundation - and the two developed

  • a special bond. So earlier this week, when Koko heard of his passing, photos surfaced

  • on the internet showing her emotional reaction to hearing the news. According to her caretakers,

  • she became incredibly somber - quivering her lip, and signing the wordswomanand

  • cry.”

  • Now aside from being horribly sad, part of the reason this story is gaining so much attention

  • - is that a lot of us out there assume that humans are the only animals capable of empathy.

  • Primate researchers will tell you differently, but it’s still a widely-debated topic. And

  • a new study, published this week in PeerJ, aims to examine the relationship between human

  • empathy and empathy of apes.

  • Specifically, they looked at bonobos - which are our closest evolutionary cousins - and

  • they examined them under the context of emotional contagion. It’s the ability to transfer

  • your emotions to another person using facial expressions, and it’s widely considered

  • to be the most basic form of empathy.

  • One of the most trivial forms of that, can be seen in the phenomenon of yawn contagion

  • - or contagious yawning. Interestingly, humans and bonobos are the only two species where

  • yawn contagion seems to follow an empathic trend - meaning it’s more likely to occur

  • between individuals who share a strong emotional bond. Which is another reason they chose bonobos

  • for this study.

  • Over the course of five years, a team of researchers observed both humans and bonobos doing everyday

  • activities, and they took note of how many times each individual responded to another’s

  • yawns, and how quickly it took them to respond.

  • It turns out, that in cases where the yawner and the responder were NOT friends, bonobos

  • responded just as quickly to another’s yawns, as humans did. Meaning emotional contagion

  • may be just as prominent in bonobos, as it is in humans.

  • HOWEVER. In cases where the yawner and the responder were close, or had a strong bond

  • - humans still reacted more quickly to someone else’s yawn, than bonobos. Researchers believe

  • this might be due to the complex emotional foundations that human relationships are built

  • on - but it still highlights an important conclusion of this study. Which is that when

  • it comes to empathy, a close relationship between individuals is more important, than

  • their species.

  • The Robin Williams story is a good example of that - but there’s an even better one,

  • involving the same gorilla, Koko - adopting a kitten, caring for it for many months, and

  • then expressing deep sadness when she learned the kitten died. That story has since been

  • adapted into a children’s book - and it’s a poignant example of the deep emotional bonds

  • that can exist between two individuals, even those of wildly different species.

  • I’m sure some of you out there have pets, or similar stories of bonds youve developed

  • with other animals. If so, feel free to share them in the comments below - and as always,

  • thank you guys for watching!

Empathy: it’s not just for humans anymore!

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動物有同情心嗎? (Are Animals Empathetic?)

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    TeacherJennifer Bryne 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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