Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.

Humans favor others seen as similar to themselves (ingroup) over people seen as different (outgroup), even without explicitly stated bias. Ingroup-outgroup bias extends to involuntary responses, such as empathy for pain. However, empathy biases have not been tested in our close primate relatives. Co...

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Main Authors: Matthew W Campbell, Frans B M de Waal
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
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Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/192cb6cfcef34cc0b1d8db527391c2a7
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:192cb6cfcef34cc0b1d8db527391c2a72021-11-18T06:56:10ZIngroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0018283https://doaj.org/article/192cb6cfcef34cc0b1d8db527391c2a72011-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21494669/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Humans favor others seen as similar to themselves (ingroup) over people seen as different (outgroup), even without explicitly stated bias. Ingroup-outgroup bias extends to involuntary responses, such as empathy for pain. However, empathy biases have not been tested in our close primate relatives. Contagious yawning has been theoretically and empirically linked to empathy. If empathy underlies contagious yawning, we predict that subjects should show an ingroup-outgroup bias by yawning more in response to watching ingroup members yawn than outgroup. Twenty-three chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) from two separate groups watched videos of familiar and unfamiliar individuals yawning or at rest (control). The chimpanzees yawned more when watching the familiar yawns than the familiar control or the unfamiliar yawns, demonstrating an ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning. These results provide further empirical support that contagious yawning is a measure of empathy, which may be useful for evolutionary biology and mental health.Matthew W CampbellFrans B M de WaalPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 4, p e18283 (2011)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Matthew W Campbell
Frans B M de Waal
Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
description Humans favor others seen as similar to themselves (ingroup) over people seen as different (outgroup), even without explicitly stated bias. Ingroup-outgroup bias extends to involuntary responses, such as empathy for pain. However, empathy biases have not been tested in our close primate relatives. Contagious yawning has been theoretically and empirically linked to empathy. If empathy underlies contagious yawning, we predict that subjects should show an ingroup-outgroup bias by yawning more in response to watching ingroup members yawn than outgroup. Twenty-three chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) from two separate groups watched videos of familiar and unfamiliar individuals yawning or at rest (control). The chimpanzees yawned more when watching the familiar yawns than the familiar control or the unfamiliar yawns, demonstrating an ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning. These results provide further empirical support that contagious yawning is a measure of empathy, which may be useful for evolutionary biology and mental health.
format article
author Matthew W Campbell
Frans B M de Waal
author_facet Matthew W Campbell
Frans B M de Waal
author_sort Matthew W Campbell
title Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
title_short Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
title_full Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
title_fullStr Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
title_full_unstemmed Ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
title_sort ingroup-outgroup bias in contagious yawning by chimpanzees supports link to empathy.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2011
url https://doaj.org/article/192cb6cfcef34cc0b1d8db527391c2a7
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