Empathy in Nonhumans: A Brief Overview

Abstract

We present a brief overview of the study of empathy in nonhumans.  We begin with a historical perspective that focuses on early ideas about empathy developed by Peter Kropotkin and Adam Smith. From there we discuss the origin and evolution of the multiple layers of empathy—emotional contagion,  sympathetic concern, and empathetic perspective-taking—casting that discussion within the “Russian doll model” of empathy developed by de Waal. For each layer we provide examples from the animal behavior literature.