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Caring for Others: The Early Emergence of Sympathy and Guilt

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Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Psychology ((EVOLPSYCH))

Abstract

Humans have evolved to be highly interdependent: We rely heavily on one another to survive and succeed as individuals and as a species. This interdependence has meant, in turn, the need to ensure the well-being of those with whom we are – or could potentially be – interdependent.

In this chapter, we argue that this need has equipped us with psychological mechanisms that help us detect and respond prosocially toward those who need help or are suffering. Moreover, these psychological mechanisms appear early in ontogeny and, thus, allow even the youngest members of our species to promote others’ welfare and foster cooperation. We focus on two affective mechanisms: sympathy and guilt. Sympathy involves feeling concern for those in need or distress and motivates us to alleviate the need or distress of those individuals. We review evidence demonstrating that infants sympathize with others from the first year on, and this sympathy motivates their prosocial behavior by the second year. Moreover, by the second year, sympathy is a flexible and reliable prosocial mechanism. Guilt is prototypically experienced when one has caused another’s need or distress and promotes reparative and prosocial behavior toward that individual, thus helping to repair ruptures in our cooperative relationships. We review evidence that guilt serves this critical function by the third year of life, thereby enabling even young children to safeguard cooperation. We end by noting caveats to our account and discussing open questions and predictions that emerge from the evolutionary account of early sympathy and guilt.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Guilt is often confused with the related social emotions of shame and embarrassment. However, though all three emotions are elicited by transgressions, they are distinct in critical ways. Guilt pertains to one’s harmful actions and motivates reparative behavior, which benefits one’s relationships. On the other hand, shame involves feelings that the whole self is a failure and thus leads one to withdraw from social contact rather than to repair, and embarrassment generally follows transgressions of social conventions rather than moral transgressions (Keltner & Buswell, 1996). Guilt is thus considered the quintessential moral emotion – one that plays a critical role in restoring and maintaining cooperation (though see Sznycer, 2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Amrisha Vaish & Tobias Grossmann

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  1. Amrisha Vaish
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  2. Tobias Grossmann
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Correspondence to Amrisha Vaish .

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  1. Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Sybil L. Hart

  2. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    David F. Bjorklund

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Vaish, A., Grossmann, T. (2022). Caring for Others: The Early Emergence of Sympathy and Guilt. In: Hart, S.L., Bjorklund, D.F. (eds) Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76000-7_16

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