动物和人类的利他本性:共情的进化

共情指个体感知或想象其他个体的情感,并部分体验到其他个体感受的心理过程.利他指以增加其他个体的福利为最终目标的动机.共情起源于动物的亲代养育行为,其神经基础来源于古老的情感系统.共情从动物低水平的情绪感染逐渐进化到同情关注以及观点采择共情.另外,共情具有良好的环境适应性.未来可以进一步研究动物与人类的共情和利他行为的异同,加大研究动物的高级共情能力和利他行为以及深入研究共情受社会因素的调节机制.

Animal and Human Altruistic Nature: The Evolution of Empathy

Empathy occurs when an observer perceives or imagines someone else’s affect and this triggers a response such that the observer partially feels what the target is feeling. Altruism refers to the motivation of which ultimate goal is to increase other individuals’ welfare. Empathy originates from animals’ parental rearing behavior and its neural basis is derived from old emotional system. Empathy has evolved from animals’ simple emotional contagion to sympathetic concern and empathic perspective-taking. In addition, empathy has a good adaptability to the environment. Future research can focus on the similarity and difference between human beings’ and animals’ empathy and altruistic behaviors, animals’ advanced empathy ability and altruistic behaviors, and the regulation mechanism of social factors on empathy.