Japanese Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Online ISSN : 1884-510X
Print ISSN : 1344-4298
ISSN-L : 1344-4298
Human Prosociality from the Perspective of Evolutionary Psychology
Mariko Hasegawa
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2016 Volume 18 Issue 3+4 Pages 108-114

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Abstract

Human psychological mechanisms and behavioral patterns are as much the products of evolution as morphology and biochemical processes. Human technology and civilization have developed exponentially since the advent of agriculture and pastoralism. However, the basic workings of human brain were formulated during 65 million years of primate evolution, particularly during the last 200 thousand years of Homo sapiens evolution. Evolutionary psychology aims to elucidate the biological bases of human psychology utilizing knowledge about the environment in which this human evolution took place.

Recent discoveries in the fields of behavioral ecology and physical anthropology have revealed that humans are incredibly prosocial animals with deep potentials for altruism and sympathy. These characteristics are, of course, based on social abilities possessed by our closest relatives, the great apes. However, humans must have acquired this specific prosociality after diverging from the ape line, in the human-specific evolutionary environment.

Humans possess an ability for emotional empathy, in which the individual is unconsciously affected by the emotions of other individuals, as well as an ability to consciously understand and feel sympathy toward other individuals. Humans had to venture into the new environment of the savannah around 2.5 million years ago, with the gradual cooling and aridification of Africa. In order to survive this severe environment, social intelligence to understand others both cognitively and emotionally would have been crucial. However, humans have gone one step further to share the state of mind, such as “I know that you know that I know that you see the dog”. This special ability enabled us to develop language and build civilization, eventually leading to our current state on Earth.

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© 2016 Japanese Society of Cognitive Neuroscience
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