The evolutionary foundations and function of empathy in relation to the expression of positive emotions in human nursing behaviors

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24300103
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: MYOWA-YAMAKOSHI Masako 京都大学, 教育学研究科(研究院), 教授 (00372839)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): FUKUSHIMA Hirokata 関西大学, 社会学部, 准教授 (50611331) ; SAITO Atsuko 東京大学, 総合文化研究科, 専任講師 (00415572)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HIRATA Satoshi 京都大学, 野生動物研究センター熊本サンクチュアリ, 教授 (80396225) ; ADACHI Ikuma 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 助教 (80543214)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 実験系心理学 / 認知科学 / 進化 / 行動学 / 発達

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Empathy to positive emotions is unique to humans. What is the adaptive function of this ability? Humans, compared to great apes, show (i) increased infant rearing costs in terms of time and resources, and (ii) increased social smiling in childhood. This increased smiling-in conjunction with rearing adult’s empathy towards such positive emotions-may be driving the increased communal rearing (allomothering), which in turn is crucial for the successful rearing of costly human infants. We investigated the positive empathetic responses of humans and chimpanzees towards infant emotional expressions. For humans, the caregivers increased interactions with infants was positively correlated with the physiological measures for empathy. This suggests that empathy to positive emotions is linked with increased exposure to infants’ smiling. Data remain to be analyzed for chimpanzees. This preliminary evidence supports our theory that empathy to positive emotions is associated with allomothering.

Free Research Field

比較発達認知科学