Empathy as a driver of prosocial behaviour: highly conserved neurobehavioural mechanisms across species.

ABSTRACT: Empathy reflects the natural ability to perceive and be sensitive to the emotional states of others, coupled with a motivation to care for their well-being. It has evolved in the context of parental care for offspring, as well as within kinship bonds, to help facilitate group living. In this paper, we integrate the perspectives of evolution, animal behaviour, developmental psychology, and social and clinical neuroscience to elucidate our understanding of the proximate mechanisms underlying empathy. We focus, in particular, on processing of signals of distress and need, and their relation to prosocial behaviour. The ability to empathize, both in animals and humans, mediates prosocial behaviour when sensitivity to others' distress is paired with a drive towards their welfare. Disruption or a

SUBMITTER: Decety J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4685523 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature