Empathy, the cognitive skill that enables us to decode emotional cues and respond to them, is an ability traditionally associated with human kind. Without it, we would fall not only behind primates, but also behind a large number of other mammals who display at least a basic levels of it, says primatologist Frans de Waal.
And yet, the extend of atrocities committed by man against his own kind are unparalleled in the animal world.
But well meaning researchers report on observations and experiments involving primates and argue that since they reliably display discernible levels of empathy, chances are that humans - despite the state of human affairs - function along the same vein.
Unless they reliably don't. And now, why would that be, Frans?
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