By Frans de Waal
A primatologist explores empathy in humans and animals
Subject
Themes
Empathy sits at the heart of what makes societies function, yet Western political thought has long dismissed it in favour of self-interest and competition. Primatologist Frans de Waal challenges this view by demonstrating that empathy is not a uniquely human trait, but rather an ancient biological inheritance shared across the animal kingdom. Through decades of studying primates and other social animals, de Waal reveals that cooperation, emotional contagion, and caring behaviour emerge naturally from evolutionary processes, contradicting the notion that nature is fundamentally red in tooth and claw.
Empathy sits at the heart of what makes societies function, yet Western political thought has long dismissed it in favour of self-interest and competition. Primatologist Frans de Waal challenges this view by demonstrating that empathy is not a uniquely human trait, but rather an ancient biological…
Frans de Waal's work on empathy arrives at a crucial moment when scientific understanding of emotion, morality, and cooperation has undergone dramatic transformation. For much of the twentieth century, animal behaviour studies focused narrowly on observable actions whilst dismissing internal states…
Empathy is not a uniquely human achievement but an ancient mammalian capacity that evolved to strengthen social bonds and promote group survival. For millions of years, mammals have lived in groups where cooperation provides survival advantages, from collective defence against predators to shared…
Political movements across the spectrum have consistently misused biology to justify their preferred social arrangements, creating a toxic relationship between science and politics that obscures what evolution actually reveals about human nature. The political right has claimed Darwin as their…
Empathy is not primarily a cognitive achievement of the rational mind, but an embodied phenomenon rooted in automatic bodily responses to others' states. Before consciously analysing what someone feels or needs, bodies respond directly to social signals through motor mimicry, physiological…
The capacity to recognise fairness and demand reciprocity extends far deeper into the animal kingdom than philosophers and economists have traditionally acknowledged. From capuchin monkeys rejecting unequal rewards to chimpanzees remembering who has helped them, social animals demonstrate…
Understanding empathy's biological foundations transforms how societies can be organised, moving beyond the false dichotomy between competitive individualism and authoritarian collectivism. Neither unleashing pure selfishness nor suppressing all self-interest aligns with human nature. Instead,…
The global financial crisis of 2008 marked a watershed moment in how society thinks about human nature and social organisation. For a quarter century, Reagan-Thatcher economics had promoted the idea that greed drives progress, that markets regulate themselves perfectly, and that individual wealth…
Political ideologies across the spectrum have consistently weaponised biology to support their preferred social arrangements, creating deep misunderstandings about what evolution actually reveals. The American political right has claimed Darwin as intellectual justification for competitive…
Darwin's theory of evolution has been systematically misrepresented to support ideologies of pure competition, ignoring that The Origin of Species devoted substantial attention to cooperation, mutual aid, and social instincts. Whilst 'survival of the fittest' became a battle cry for cutthroat…
Empathy begins not in conscious thought but in automatic bodily responses to others' movements, expressions, and emotional states. Before we intellectually analyse what someone feels, our bodies have already begun mimicking their postures, expressions, and gestures in ways so subtle we rarely…
Empathy exists at multiple levels of sophistication, from basic emotional contagion to complex perspective-taking where individuals understand what specific others need based on their unique circumstances. Whilst emotional contagion creates automatic resonance with others' states, perspective-taking…
Elephants demonstrate emotional and cognitive capacities that challenge assumptions about which animals can experience complex feelings like grief, empathy, and self-awareness. Their responses to death suggest emotional depths that parallel human mourning. When elephants encounter the bones of…
The capacity to recognise fairness and protest unequal treatment extends far deeper into the animal kingdom than traditional philosophy has acknowledged. Capuchin monkey experiments dramatically illustrated that non-human primates possess fairness concerns analogous to human moral sentiments.…
By Frans de Waal
Subject
Themes
Empathy sits at the heart of what makes societies function, yet Western political thought has long dismissed it in favour of self-interest and competition. Primatologist Frans de Waal challenges this view by demonstrating that empathy is not a uniquely human trait, but rather an ancient biological inheritance shared across the animal kingdom. Through decades of studying primates and other social animals, de Waal reveals that cooperation, emotional contagion, and caring behaviour emerge naturally from evolutionary processes, contradicting the notion that nature is fundamentally red in tooth and claw.