Empathy as a driver of prosocial behaviour: highly conserved neurobehavioural mechanisms across species
Open accessAbstract
Empathy reflects the natural ability to perceive and be sensitive to the emotional states of others, coupled with a motivation to care for their well-being. It has evolved in the context of parental care for offspring, as well as within kinship bonds, to help facilitate group living. In this paper, we integrate the perspectives of evolution, animal behaviour, developmental psychology, and social and clinical neuroscience to elucidate our understanding of the proximate mechanisms underlying empathy. We focus, in particular, on processing of signals of distress and need, and their relation to prosocial behaviour. The ability to empathize, both in animals and humans, mediates prosocial behaviour when sensitivity to others' distress is paired with a drive towards their welfare. Disruption or atypical development of the neural circuits that process distress cues and integrate them with decision value leads to callous disregard for others, as is the case in psychopathy. The realization that basic forms of empathy exist in non-human animals is crucial for gaining new insights into the underlying neurobiological and genetic mechanisms of empathy, enabling translation towards therapeutic and pharmacological interventions.
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Prosocial behaviors have been documented in primates and rodents.
“For instance, prosocial behaviors have been documented in primates and rodents60, 61.”
From Distinct selective forces and Neanderthal introgression shaped genetic diversity at genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders (2017) · cites this paper as [61]
Mammals are generally believed to have acquired higher prosocial skills compared to non-mammalian vertebrates.
“Although lineages showing high cognitive skills are reported both among mammalian and bird species, mammals are generally believed to have acquired higher prosocial skills compared to non-mammalian vertebrates60, 61.”
From Distinct selective forces and Neanderthal introgression shaped genetic diversity at genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders (2017) · cites this paper as [61]
The sections ‘What is prosocial behaviour?’ and ‘Why empathy has evolved’ describe prosocial behaviour across animals, including mammals and birds. They do not compare the groups’ prosocial skills or say that mammals are generally believed to have acquired higher skills. Searches for that comparison found no passage addressing it. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDetecting others' distress is a prerequisite for helping behavior.
“Detecting others' distress is a prerequisite for helping behavior (Cronin, 2012; Decety et al., 2016).”
From Helping behavior in prairie voles: a model of empathy and the importance of oxytocin (2022) · cites this paper as Decety et al., 2016
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- Authors
- Decety, J., Bartal, I. B.-A., Uzefovsky, F., & Knafo-Noam, A.
- Affiliations
- The Child Neurosuite—Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5658 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2016-01-19
- Volume
- 371
- Issue
- 1686
- Pages
- 20150077
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC4685523
- OpenAlex
- W2216930413
- Cited by
- 740
- References
- 140
- Citations by year
- 2026: 72 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 101 · 2022: 98 · 2021: 69 · 2020: 71 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 4.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- John Templeton Foundation (Science of Philantropy)
- European Research Council (1670/13)
- Israel Science Foundation (449/14)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- empathy, prosocial behavior, distress signals, callousness, psychopathy, evolution of empathy, parental care, kinship bonds, social neuroscience, animal behavior, neural circuits, therapeutic interventions
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Empathy, Biological Evolution, Humans, Social Behavior, Stress, Psychological, Psychology, Developmental
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