UMD BIOL 608W - Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism

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Annual Reviews OnlineSearch Annual ReviewsAnnual Review of Psychology OnlineMost Downloaded Psychology ReviewsMost Cited Psychology ReviewsAnnual Review of Psychology ErrataView Current Editorial CommitteeAll Articles in the Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 59The Evolution of a Cognitive Psychologist: A Journey from Simple Behaviors to Complex Mental ActsAddiction and the Brain Antireward SystemThe Brain, Appetite, and ObesityNeuroendocrine Regulation of Feminine Sexual Behavior: Lessons from Rodent Models and Thoughts About HumansThe Biological Basis of AuditionColor in Complex ScenesVisual Perception and the Statistical Properties of Natural ScenesThe Mind and Brain of Short-Term MemoryRelativity of Remembering: Why the Laws of Memory VanishedDual-Processing Accounts of Reasoning, Judgment, and Social CognitionPutting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of EmpathySocial Bonds and Posttraumatic Stress DisorderSpontaneous Inferences, Implicit Impressions, and Implicit TheoriesMotives of the Human Animal: Comprehending, Managing, and Sharing Inner StatesCognition in OrganizationsPersonnel SelectionThe Education of Dyslexic Children from Childhood to Young AdulthoodHealth Psychology: The Search for Pathways Between Behavior and HealthHuman Abilities: Emotional IntelligenceSample Size Planning for Statistical Power and Accuracy in Parameter EstimationA Comprehensive Review of the Placebo Effect: Recent Advances and Current ThoughtChildren’s Social Competence in Cultural ContextGrounded CognitionNeuroeconomicsANRV331-PS59-11 ARI 4 November 2007 20:27Putting the AltruismBack into Altruism:The Evolution of EmpathyFrans B.M. de WaalLiving Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Psychology Department,Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322; email: [email protected]. Rev. Psychol. 2008. 59:279–300First published online as a Review in Advance onJune 5, 2007The Annual Review of Psychology is online athttp://psych.annualreviews.orgThis article’s doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625Copyrightc 2008 by Annual Reviews.All rights reserved0066-4308/08/0203-0279$20.00Key Wordsperception-action, perspective-taking, prosocial behavior,cooperationAbstractEvolutionary theory postulates that altruistic behavior evolved forthe return-benefits it bears the performer. For return-benefits to playa motivational role, however, they need to be experienced by the or-ganism. Motivational analyses should restrict themselves, therefore,to the altruistic impulse and its knowable consequences. Empathyis an ideal candidate mechanism to underlie so-called directed al-truism, i.e., altruism in response to another’s pain, need, or distress.Evidence is accumulating that this mechanism isphylogenetically an-cient, probably as old as mammals and birds. Perception of the emo-tional state of another automatically activates shared representationscausing a matching emotional state in the observer. With increasingcognition, state-matching evolved into more complex forms, includ-ing concern for the other and perspective-taking. Empathy-inducedaltruism derives its strength from the emotional stake it offers theself in the other’s welfare. The dynamics of the empathy mechanismagree with predictions from kin selection and reciprocal altruismtheory.279AR FurtherClick here for quick links to Annual Reviews content online, including:• Other articles in this volume• Top cited articles• Top downloaded articles• AR’s comprehensive searchAnnu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:279-300. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.orgby UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND - COLLEGE PARK - MCKELDIN LIBRARY on 04/29/10. For personal use only.ANRV331-PS59-11 ARI 4 November 2007 20:27Altruism(biologicaldefinition):behavior thatincreases therecipient’s fitness at acost to theperformersUltimate cause orgoal: the benefits anorganism or its closekin derive from abehavior, hence theprobable reason whythe behavior wasfavored by naturalselectionProximate cause:situation thattriggers behavior andthe mechanism(psychological,neural, physiological)that enables itContentsINTRODUCTION................. 280ORIGIN OF EMPATHY............ 282LEVELS OF EMPATHY ........... 282Emotional Contagion............. 282Sympathetic Concern............. 283Empathic Perspective-Taking ..... 285UNDERLYING MECHANISMS . . . 286Perception Action Mechanism .... 286Russian Doll Model .............. 287FROM EMPATHY TOALTRUISM ..................... 288Emotional Contagion............. 288Sympathetic Concern............. 289Empathic Perspective-Taking ..... 289EMPATHY AS EVOLVEDPROXIMATE MECHANISM OFDIRECTED ALTRUISM ........ 291CONCLUSION .................... 292Sympathy ... cannot, in any sense, beregarded as a selfish principle.Smith (1759, p. 317)Empathy may be uniquely well suited forbridging the gap between egoism and altru-ism, since it has the property of transforminganother person’s misfortune into one’s ownfeeling of distress.Hoffman (1981a, p. 133)INTRODUCTIONDiscussions of altruistic behavior tend to suf-fer from a lack of distinction between functionand motivation. This is due to the contrastingemphasis of biologists and psychologists, withthe former focusing on what a particular be-havior is good for, and the latter on how itcomes about.Evolutionary explanations are built aroundthe principle that all that natural selection canwork with are the effects of behavior—not themotivation behind it. This means there is onlyone logical starting point for evolutionary ac-counts, as explained by Trivers (2002, p. 6):“You begin with the effect of behavior on ac-tors and recipients; you deal with the problemof internal motivation, which is a secondaryproblem, afterward. ...[I]f you start with mo-tivation, you have given up the evolutionaryanalysis at the outset.”This is a perfectly legitimate strategy thathas yielded profound insights into the evo-lution of altruism (e.g., Dugatkin 2006). Un-fortunately, however, these insights have notcome with a new terminology: Evolutionarybiology persists in using motivational terms.Thus, an action is called “selfish” regard-less of whether or not the actor deliberatelyseeks benefits for itself. Similarly, an action iscalled “altruistic” if it benefits a recipient ata cost to the actor regardless of whether ornot the actor intended to benefit the other.The prototypical altruist is a honeybee thatstings an intruder—sacrificing her life to pro-tect the hive—even though her motivation


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