Definition Project 9/21

I would like to explore empathy and biases within evolution for my definition project because it is very interesting to me that animals process emotions very similarly to humans, even though we think of ourselves as the most sophisticated animals. The reason I would like to explore this is because while we were discussing in groups and outgroups, it was interesting that some people completely stray from our human nature to have empathy for another person, and how this connects to internal biases. This was discussed within the first C&E lecture that we attended. It was interesting that people can have implicit biases when it is within our nature to empathize with other human beings, and finding where these biases come from. I was also interested in this because just like empathy is implicit, so are biases, and it is useful to track our biases and see how they affect the world around us or others around us, and how we can change some of these biases. 

We first discussed this topic in the article, “The Antiquity of Empathy,” by Frans B. M. de Waal, which discusses studies of empathy in animals and how they might differ or be similar to the emotional responses of humans, and how we have evolved. The author goes on to say, “That empathy is rooted in bodily connections between individuals is reflected in pain contagion in mice (19) and yawn contagion in apes and humans (20),” (deWaal) but also discusses how humans have evolved to show empathy mostly to ingroups. This interests me because I am curious to know where this bias comes from, and where along the line of evolution that this came to be. Both empathy and biases are within human nature, but it is interesting to see where things like race were created as a social construct and what impact that has on internal biases and empathy. 

deWaal, Frans B. M. “The Antiquity of Empathy.” Science Mag, 18 May 2012, http://www.sciencemag.org.