"We still don't know how many animals can actually empathize. But the mounting studies suggest there's a fundamental baseline, at least among mammals. "When we're talking about the ability to sense the emotion of others, and to respond to them in some way, that's probably very widespread," (James) Burkett, (a neuroscience researcher at Emory) says."The article also quotes Burkett as saying, "We know that there are many psychiatric disorders where the ability to empathize is deficient," he says, "but we have no treatment for those deficiencies." But that's because science comes at it from a biological standpoint instead of a behavioral standpoint. With enough time and resources, people who are empathetically deficient could learn to empathize through guided practice.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
They're gettin' there!
This is a nice article about emotions and empathy in animals.
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Interesting article. I had a pet rat when I was a kid. I think I need to get another one. Or maybe a dog…
ReplyDeleteI like the last paragraphs of the article about the reasons behind helping out a friend. "...[They] are responding to your emotions. That's all that really matters."
:)
Yeah, I thought it was a nice article.
DeleteIf only a rat would use a litter box...
You could probably train it to. Especially if it could alleviate the suffering of a fellow rat by using the litter box.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty funny.
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