Chimpanzees may comfort others in distress in ways very similar to how people do, according to what may be the largest study of consolation in animals by far. The new findings in our closest living relatives could help shed light on the roots of empathy in humans.

The spontaneous consolation of someone in distress with a hug, a pat on the back or other friendly display of physical contact has been studied in human children as a sign of sympathetic concern for others for decades. This kind of demonstrative empathy is often thought to be a large part of what sets humanity apart from other animals.

To better understand how empathy might have evolved in our lineage, animal behaviorist Teresa Romero of Emory University and her colleagues studied roughly 30 chimpanzees housed outdoors at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Over a span of eight years they documented cases where uninvolved bystanders offered comfort to recent victims of aggression. Whereas most studies on animal consolation typically involve looking into a few hundred cases of conflicts and their aftermaths, "ours is based on an analysis of about 3,000 cases," Romero says.

Although anecdotes about chimpanzees' empathy have been plentiful, empirical evidence was very limited until now, Romero explains. The large amount of data that she and her colleagues collected helped them detect various trends by observing when consolation was offered in the forms of grooming, embraces, gentle touches and kisses. For instance, females were significantly more consolatory overall than males were.

Empathetic roots
"These results are in line with the results obtained in humans," says primatologist and sociobiologist Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa in Italy, who did not take part in this study. "This is an adaptive behavior that is probably based on the strong emotional links between the mother and her infant till the first stages of life. The capacity to understand, foresee and respond promptly to the necessities of a baby is extremely important for the fitness of the mother, so females' empathic behavior has probably been favored by natural selection."

Additionally, a similar pattern was seen in the highest-ranking males, who frequently offered consolation. This likely reflected the general pacifying function of these males in chimpanzee life, the researchers say. Another effect of social roles in consolation: low-ranking chimpanzees received solace roughly half as often as higher-ranked victims.

Similarly to humans, chimpanzees were more likely to console kin and those socially close to them than others—about two to three times more so—and they were significantly more supportive with those who had comforted them in the past. Also, consolation occurred roughly 50 percent more when aggressors ignored victims and no reconciliation had occurred between them. The researchers suggest that means bystanders offering solace were sensitive to the neglected victims' need for comfort.

Many mammals may be capable of basic forms of empathy. The point of this research is not so much that our closest living relatives display empathy, "but the possible level of empathy reached by chimpanzees," Romero says.

The human-animal connection
The consolation observed in chimps goes beyond merely basic empathy, Romero notes—if the apes only understood how others felt, they would be expected "to selfishly seek alleviation of their own distress, probably turning away from the victim." Rather, the distressed chimpanzees seem to experience concern born from sympathy, leading them to seek out and help others. "The underlying mechanism of consolation in chimpanzees may be similar to humans," Romero says. She and her colleagues Miguel Castellanos and Frans de Waal detailed their findings online June 14 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

8 Comments

1. 1. JLaurel 11:02 PM 6/14/10

   This is fascinating. Elitism, reciprocity, selfishness, it can't get more "human" than this.
   On the other hand, we see this excessive emphasis placed on females and motherhood. While the bonding is clearly described even in "seemingly inferior species", this is in fact a trait I still find lacking in my counterparts. Actually, this is one of the main reasons why men still have the upperhand in most relationships. Men stick for each other way more often than women do. A lesson still to be learned.
   Fantastic study. I'd love to read more on the subject!!

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2. 2. detaylor 01:39 AM 6/15/10

   This is not new information, Robert Sapolsky wrote a paper on that exact same thing in 1990.

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3. 3. detaylor in reply to JLaurel 01:42 AM 6/15/10

   You should check out a video on YouTube called "The Uniqueness of Humans" by Robert Sapolsky. It is a lecture he gave at Stanford University and covers this same subject and it pretty interesting. Be advised though, it is a 40 min video.

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4. 4. Feathered Ape 03:54 AM 6/15/10

   I agree, this doesn't seem like anything new as Frans de Waal himself has shown this many times before. Chimps are always put on a pedestal when it cones to their intelligence and empathy, but this 'consolation' behaviour has been found in other animals, perhaps most surprisingly rooks (a species of crow). What appears to be a difference between rooks and chimps is the fact that rooks console those that are important to them, such as their partner, whereas chimps console those that could strategically be important to them. Is that empathy or just politics? I think I would say the rooks were more empathic than the chimps!

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5. 5. JLaurel in reply to detaylor 07:34 AM 6/15/10

   I'll definitely check that. Thanks for the tip!
   Cheers

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6. 6. Wayne Williamson 08:45 PM 6/15/10

   detaylor...thanks for the youtube link...very much enjoyed...

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7. 7. Inner Smile 07:49 PM 6/16/10

   Frans de Waal (from his facebook page comment on this article): This study just came out about expressions of empatyhy in chimpanzees. Some of the comment lines claim that this was well-known before. The phenomenon was indeed, but there has been debate about it in the literature with some trying to turn consolation into a self-protective strategy (consoling someone who may otherwise attack you), and other alterantive scenarios. This is the first large-scale study that settles all of these issues in one swoop: consolation seems truly an expresion of empathy as it is aimed at close friends and kin (so, not those who usually attack you), is done more by females, and has a calming effect. Overall, very impressive support for the empathy hypothesis. And no, we didn't have this support before.

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8. 8. perfectarc 09:24 PM 6/21/10

   Nothing surprising here ..... especially since kin relations like this have been observed in the wild for many decades now. I still enjoyed the article though.

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