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Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice

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Compassion: an evolutionary analysis and empirical review.

Jennifer L Goetz¹, Dacher Keltner, Emiliana Simon-Thomas

¹Department of Psychology, University of California-Berkeley, CA, USA. jgoetz@middlebury.edu

Psychological Bulletin

|May 5, 2010

Summary

Compassion evolved to help protect those who suffer, promoting cooperation. This distinct emotion influences moral actions and varies across cultures, with unique neural patterns.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary psychology
Affective science
Social neuroscience

Background:

Compassion's evolutionary origins and distinctiveness remain debated.
Understanding compassion's function is key to social behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

To review evolutionary arguments for compassion as a distinct emotion.
To explore compassion's role in cooperation and protection of vulnerable individuals.

Main Methods:

Integration of three evolutionary arguments.
Empirical review of appraisal, signaling, and phenomenological/physiological responses.
Comparative analysis with other emotions (distress, sadness, love).

Main Results:

Compassion evolved as a distinct affective experience facilitating cooperation and protection.
Evidence shows distinct appraisal processes, caregiving-related signaling, and social approach orientation.
Compassion's response profile differs significantly from distress, sadness, and love.

Conclusions:

Compassion is a distinct emotion with evolutionary roots in social bonding and protection.
Compassion influences moral judgment, action, and cultural variations.
Future research directions include neural activation patterns and cross-cultural studies.