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Empathy in Animals and Humans
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By Alex Cukan
UPI Health Correspondent
ALBANY, N.Y., July 11 (UPI) — McGill University researchers have shown that mice have a capacity for empathy, previously suspected but unproven even among higher primates.
This will not come as a complete surprise to many of us who have dogs and cats.
In the study, published in the journal Science, Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, graduate student Dale Langford and colleagues in the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University in Montreal discovered mice that lived together and saw one another in pain were more sensitive to pain than those tested alone.
The results, which for the first time demonstrate a form of "emotional contagion" between animals, shows a capacity for empathy in lower mammals, according to Mogil.
However, for many people with pets, animals showing empathy is not news. Tina, a former neighbor of mine, told me the story of her German Shepherd, Cody, a dog better known for barking at cats and the postal carrier than empathy.
Tina had come home from her job at the bank with a terrific headache and got into bed. Cody came into the room and placed his chin on her arm, but she told him that she had a bad headache so there would be no walk.
Cody left, but returned with the Teddy bear he slept with and placed it Tina's arm, settled next to her and stayed with her until she felt better.
German Shepherds are known for being in tune with their owners and wanting to please. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I interviewed a woman who had searched for people in the rubble of the World Trade Center with her German Shepherd.
A search-and-rescue dog must undergo rigorous training and when working is all business, but when the dog and owner relaxed in the evenings, it was very attuned to the owner's emotions.
"There have been times when I am reading a book and the dog is sleeping on the leather sofa and I'll read a passage that is sad or upsetting," she told Caregiving. "It's just an internal thing, I don't believe I am showing any emotion on the outside or act any differently, but when I am troubled by something I have read, the dog jumps off the sofa and puts her muzzle on my lap."
Not all dogs do this; some breeds seem to be more attuned than others. My own dog, a border collie/Doberman Pinscher mix named Mr. B., was not that simpatico.
In the 1980s, when my father's cat died, I was upset and went to sit with the dog, but all Mr. B. ever wanted to do was go for a walk.
The feral kitty that my father adopted two years ago prefers to sleep upstairs in her box, but last year, when my sister was sick, she spent every night in a chair next to her, until she was better.
"Empathy is usually defined as the ability to imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. It is a term coined in the early 20th century, equivalent to the German Einfuhlung and modeled on 'sympathy,'" Dr. Larry Lachman, a licensed clinical psychologist and animal behavior consultant, told Caregiving.
"For humans, it involves the unique homo sapien biped ability of abstract self-reflection: being aware of our awareness. However, empathy also involves recognizing nonverbal facial cues, body language, 'personal critical distances' and social signals from one's group," according to Lachman, the author of "Cats on the Counter: Therapy and Training for Your Cat" and "Dogs on the Couch: Behavior Therapy for Training and Caring for Your Dog."
"For example, proxemics, a branch of anthropology, studies intimate social and public distances that allow us to show 'empathy' within one's culture – with dogs, within their pack; or with cats, within their pride – by correctly interpreting both nonverbal and verbal behavior and responding appropriately to maintain the social harmony," said Lachman.
Lachman adds that in the case of the empathic mice, it should be noted that many animals can smell, see and hear at much more subtle frequencies than humans, who may also be emitting pheromones that signal alarm or fear.
Last May my father fell, and although he recovered physically, he was scared to leave his room because he feared falling again. The feral kitty spent a lot of time in his room as he recovered, but one day she bounded on his stomach as he lay in his bed – something she had never done before – and looked him in the eye and mewed as if to say, "Are you going to get up or what?" He did.
Next, we'll ask the question: Why can't humans be more empathic?
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Alex Cukan is an award-winning journalist, but she always has considered caregiving her primary job. UPI welcomes comments and questions about this column. E-mail: consumerhealth@upi.com
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