Abstract
Empathy can be widely defined as the capacity to understand the emotional, visual, or cognitive perspective of another individual and is perhaps reliant on the ability to attribute mental states. Behavioural events that may indicate empathy in chimpanzees,Pan troglodytes, are collated (1) using a questionnaire and (2) from the literature. These case studies are classified in a taxonomy of empathic acts in which empathy is categorized as visual empathy, emotional empathy, concordance and extended empathy. In addition, the circumstances surrounding the empathic acts are discussed: whether the recipient of the empathic act was a relative, an unfamiliar individual, or a heterospecific. The cost to the animal showing empathy, whether it displayed any levels of intentionality and if it communicated to a third party are also analyzed. Rescuing of an individual from a dangerous social or physical situation is the only category where the animal shows empathy under all the specified conditions. From this preliminary analysis it seems the chimpanzees may be capable of showing empathy across a wide range of circumstances.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Astington, J. W. &A. Gopnik, 1991. Developing understanding of desire and intention. In:Natural Theories of Mind,A. Whiten (ed.), Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 39–50.
Bennett, J., 1976.Linguistic Behaviour. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Boesch, C., 1992a. Transmission aspects of tool use in wild chimpanzees. In:Tool Use, Language Aquisition and Cognition in Human Evolution,K. R. Gibson &T. Ingold (eds.), Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, pp. 171–183.
————, 1992b. New elements of a theory of mind in wild chimpanzees.Behav. Brain Sci., 15: 149–150.
Borke, H., 1971. Interpersonal perception of young children: egocentrism or empathy?Develop. Psychol., 5: 263–269.
Cheney, D. &R. Seyfarth, 1990. Attending to behaviour is attending to knowledge: examining monkey’s attribution of mental states.Anim. Behav., 4: 742–753.
Crook, J. H., 1983. On attributing consciousness to animals.Nature, 303: 11–14.
Dennett, D. C., 1978.Brainstorms. Harvard, Brighton.
————, 1988. The intentional stance in theory and practice. In:Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes and Humans,R. Byrne &A. Whiten (eds.), Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 180–202.
Goodall, J., 1986.The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behaviour. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
————, 1990.Through a Window. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Gouzoules, S., H. Gouzoules, &P. Marler, 1984. Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) screams: representational signalling in the recruitment of agonistic aid.Anim. Behav., 32: 182–193.
Grafen, A., 1986. Natural selection, kin selection and group selection. In:Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach (2nd ed.),J. R. Krebs &N. B. Davies (eds.), Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, pp. 5–31.
Griffen, D. R., 1978. Prospects for a cognitive ethology.Behav. Brain Sci., 4: 527–538.
————, 1981.The Question of Animal Awareness: The Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience. William Kaufman, California.
———— (ed.), 1982.Animal Mind: Human Mind. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
, 1984.Animal Thinking. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Hamilton, W. D., 1964. The genetic evolution of social behaviour.J. Theoret. Biol., 7: 1–52.
Heyes, C. M., 1993. Anecdotes, training, trapping, and triangulating: do animals attribute mental states?Anim. Behav., 46(1): 177–188.
Köhler, W., 1925.The Mentality of Apes. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Reprinted. Liveright 1976. New York.
Leslie, A. M., 1987. Pretense and representation in infancy: the origins of ‘theory of mind.’.Psychol. Rev., 94: 412–426.
Mead, G. K., 1934.Mind, Self and Society. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Miller, P. H. &P. A. Aloise, 1989. Young children’s understanding of the psychological causes of behaviour: a review.Child Develop., 60: 257–285.
Perner, J., 1991.Understanding the Representational Mind. The MIT Press, Massachusetts.
———— &J. E. Ogden, 1988. Knowledge for hunger: children’s problem with representation in inputing mental states.Cognition, 29: 47–61.
Povinelli, D. J., K. E. Nelson, &S. T. Boysen, 1990. Inferences about guessing and knowing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).J. Comp. Psychol., 104(3): 203–210.
————, & ————, 1992. Comprehension of role reversal in chimpanzees: evidence of empathy?Anim. Behav., 43(4): 633–640.
————,K. A. Parks, &M. A. Novak, 1991. Do rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) attribute knowledge and ignorance to others?J. Comp. Psychol., 105(4): 318–325.
————, & ————, 1992. Role reversal by rhesus monkeys, but no evidence of empathy.Anim. Behav., 44(2): 269–282.
Premack, D. J. &G. Woodruff, 1978. Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?Behav. Brain Sci., 4: 515–526.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S. &K. McDonald, 1988. Deception and social manipulation in symbol-using apes. In:Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes and Humans,R. W. Byrne &A. Whiten (eds.), Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 224–237.
de Waal, F., 1982.Chimpanzee Politics. Unwin Press, London.
————, 1989.Peacemaking Amongst Primates. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
———— &A. van Roosmalen, 1979. Reconciliation and consolation among chimpanzees.Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 5: 55–66.
Wellman, H., 1990.The Child’s Theory of Mind. The MIT Press, Massachusetts.
Whiten, A., (ed.), 1991.Natural Theories of Mind. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
———— &R. W. Byrne, 1988. Tactical deception in primates.Behav. Brain Sci., 11: 233–273.
Wimmer, H. &J. Perner, 1983. Beliefs about false beliefs.Cognition, 13: 103–128.
Wispé, L., 1986. The distinction between sympathy and empathy: to call forth a concept, a word is needed.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol., 50(2): 314–321.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
About this article
Cite this article
O’Connell, S.M. Empathy in chimpanzees: Evidence for theory of mind?. Primates 36, 397–410 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02382862
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02382862