“Animals Experience Complex Emotions, According to Primatologist“, Michael Krasny interviews Frans de Waal, 92 min, from kqed.org/forum. Waal is also an ethologist.
RSS link for this (up to) ten times per week podcast: feeds.feedburner.com/kqedforum
This episode is downloadable here. This is a great episode (although I’m already familiar with most of what was covered).
Ask a pet owner if animals have emotions, writes primatologist Frans De Waal and they’ll say, “of course!” But ask a University professor, and they’ll squirm. While the leading theories in science only recognize basic emotions in animals such as anger, happiness and fear, De Wall argues that animals share all emotions with humans, including complex ones like hope, disappointment, guilt and empathy. Frans De Waal joins Forum to discuss his decades of research on the behavior and social intelligence of primates and his new book, “Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What they Tell Us about Ourselves.”
Minute/second bookmarks:
- 01:12 (to skip intro)
- 02:05 Chimpanze “Mama”, group leader, empathy on her deathbed
- 05:34 “All animals have emotions”; fear & amygdala in rat studies
- 09:35 An animal’s concept of “fairness”
- 11:27 Chimps fighting then actually kissing and making up
- 12:50 Control of emotions and impulses
- 15:51 War & peace wrt civilizations (vs Steve Pinker)
- 17:27 Animal (even fish) fairness, compassion, empathy; pillars of morality
- 19:27 Grieving
- 20:42 Food sharing (chimps)
- 24:51 (back from station break)
- 25:00 chimps vs bonobos wrt war & love
- 27:45 maternal protectiveness, esp. in mammals
- 29:36 feelings vs emotions; expression (by body & facial muscles)
- 33:44 dog emotions (e.g. guilt, but need more experimentation)
- 35:08 chimps & horses also have facial muscles for expression
- 37:28 animal grieving over loss of another
- 39:28 cat coming downstairs right before dying
- 41:22 may be able to measure “feelings” in animal brains
- 42:17 dolphins, evolutionary origin of feelings, Jaak Pansepp
- 44:30 every brain part is also found in chimps, just sizes are different
- 45:52 solitary vs group oriented social behavior
- 47:38 jealousy & envy; “anthropo-denialist” (opposed to -morphic)
- 50:06 crows reaction to death; bonobos as our closest relatives, etc
Simon Paynton 4 years, 5 months ago.
