Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 7, 2011 at 4:24pm

This may need its own post. You be the judge, DG

 

Contagious Chimp Yawns Seem to Point to Human-Like Empathy

 

Contagious Chimp Yawns Seem to Point to Human-Like Empathy

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What’s the News: Chimpanzees, like people, can “catch” yawns from others. But not all yawns are created equal, it seems; chimps are more likely to catch yawns from a chimp they know than from a stranger, a new study found. (You can see a video of it here.) This supports the idea that it’s empathy—rather than just everybody needing a nap—that makes yawns contagious.

 How the Heck:

• Two groups of chimps at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center near Atlanta, each with about a dozen adult members, were part of the study. The two groups lived in different large enclosures, and hadn’t seen—much less gotten to know—each other. Chimpanzees are extremely territorial, and a whole lot friendlier to individuals in their own group than to strangers.
• The researchers took videos of spontaneous yawns from chimps in each group, as well as videos of the chimps just hanging out in the enclosure. They then played each chimp two videos on an iPod Touch: a yawn video, which included clips of chimps from both groups yawning,  and a control video, of chimps doing other things.
• The chimpanzees yawned more when they saw their group members yawning than when they saw them going about their usual business, the study found, and they yawned more in response to their groupmates’ yawning than to the yawns of chimps in the other group.

What’s the Context:

• Previous research with humans has linked the ability to feel empathy to catching a contagious yawn; The Thoughtful Animal blog provides a good explanation of this phenomenon.
• Both very young children, who are still developing an understanding of others’ state of mind, and children with autism, who are less attuned to what other people are feeling, seem to be immune to contagious yawns.
• People who show signs of  schizotypy, and generally feel less empathy, catch yawns less, while highly empathetic people catch them more.
• Some earlier work previously raised the possibility that chimps may feel empathy.

Reference: Matthew W. Campbell, & Frans B. M. de Waal. “Ingroup-Outgroup Bias in Contagious Yawning by Chimpanzees Supports Link to Empathy.” PLoS ONE, 6 (4), 2011. DOI :10.1371/journal.pone.0018283

Permalink Reply by A Former Member on April 7, 2011 at 6:07pm

I want to yawn right now just reading about it, but I've always been very empathetic. : )

 

Either way, just whatever you think. Leave it here for now though, but in the future, whatever you think is best.

 

Interesting stuff. I suppose they've found mirror neurons in primates as well, right?

Permalink Reply by A Former Member on April 30, 2013 at 8:06pm

Published on Jul 31, 2012

Bella and Beavis played ball together, shared living quarters, ate together, etc. They lived and loved together for quite a while. Beavis died this morning, and Bella has been in mourning for hours.

Permalink Reply by Michel on May 1, 2013 at 9:47am

If you do a Google Images search for "cross-species friends"...

Yeah, I know, it's not very scientific, but you'll still find tons of anecdotal evidence that we are not the exclusive owners of empathy.

Permalink Reply by Marianne on May 6, 2013 at 11:41pm

It would appear in my opinion that they show more empathy than humans toward each other...

Permalink Reply by A Former Member on May 6, 2013 at 11:53pm

Certainly seems that way, at time.