British Scientists: Compassion runs deep in human DNA

[BurtWorm]

Suggesting that teabaggers may be an offshoot of a new species with a mutation where the compassion gene ordinarily sits. (Evolution doesn't necessarily progress, remember. It just moves to fill available niches, like the vast steppes of the FOX wasteland.)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/neanderthals-had-sense-of-compassion-2098270.html

The four-stage model developed by Penny Spikins, Andy Needham and Holly Rutherford charts the beginnings of human empathy from six million years ago when the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees began to "help" others, perhaps with a gesture of comfort or moving a branch to allow them to pass.

Compassion in Homo erectus 1.8 million years ago began to be regulated as an emotion integrated with rational thought, the researchers said.

Care of sick individuals showed compassion towards others while special treatment of the dead suggested grief at the loss of a loved one and a desire to soothe individuals.

In modern humans starting 120,000 years ago, compassion was extended to strangers, animals, objects and abstract concepts.

...

She said: "Compassion is perhaps the most fundamental human emotion...."

[Orrex]

1. Ergo, Republicans aren't human

QED

[jgraz]

14. They are, they're just less evolved.

Homo Republicanus

[woodsprite]

2. This is a flawed study. Since Repubs don't believe in science,

they didn't even have them as test cases! All the test cases must have been Dem.

[Vehl]

13. lol good one! nt

[Teaser]

3. Empathy is not compassion.

I have absolutely zero empathy, in that I am completely unable to "put myself in someone else's shoes." However, I can be quite compassionate. From time to time.

[fasttense]

5. Really you can't understand the pain someone else would feel?

My sympathetic response is so strong I can't bear to watch boxers (wrestling looks so fake it does not appear like real fighting to me). I could never be a doctor or nurse. I would be in pain all the time.

[Teaser]

6. I am mildly autistic.

I understand that certain situations make other people sad. And I do feel compassion. But I don't really know what it's like to experience the other situations. I react in a very numb and clinical way to other's pain at times. It's taken a lifetime to try and work around.

[Odin2005]

10. I consider the assertion that us autistics "have no empathy" to be offensive junk science.

It is an illusion caused by our trouble to read non-verbal communication clues, which is not in and of itself Empathy.

In fact, empathy sometimes overwhelms me, leaving me an emotional wreck. It's like I can literally physically FEEL the suffering of others, it's extremely painful, not unlike typical autistic sensory overload.

[Teaser]

12. *shrugs*

call that empathy if you want. But the assertion that I have no "theory of mind" for other people (which I would identify as empathy) is very much on target for me.

You have a different definition that works for you. Awesome.

[fasttense]

There was a similar study done

that put sensors on people's legs, then the people had to watch videos of others getting injured in the same location as the sensors. The nerve ending of the watchers actually went off as if they were getting injured but of course more mildly.

They think the sympathetic response is ingrained and we must be thoroughly taught to be cruel and unsympathetic. RepubliCONS are carefully taught.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. Compassion is very much present in the primate lineage.

Check out anything written by Franz DeWaal. It's actually a fairly common feature in social mammals.

Republicanism goes against human nature.

[applegrove]

7. I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and one thing that happens is that

your emotions get muted. I'm much less empathetic than I used to be and I miss it a lot.

[ThomCat]

8. I am very, very sorry.

I hope you are able to recover fully, and get your full range of emotion health back. :hug:

[applegrove]

9. I'm hopeful too. Thanks.

[Odin2005]

11. You have to be carefully taught to be an asshole.

[thereismore]

15. Teabaggers did not evolve - they were created by design. nt