Humans feel bad when they see animals hurt, generations of evolution alongside companion species encoded empathy for animals possessing traits closer to domestic species in our psychology.
Humans feel bad when they see animals hurt, generations of evolution alongside companion species encoded empathy for animals possessing traits closer to domestic species in our psychology.
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Guaranteed if you are a hunter-gatherer and you see a deer take an arrow to the head, you are not thinking “poor thing”
Nah bro, people have empathy for animals and some people don’t. The huge industrial process of mass farming livestock for food should already make you think otherwise. Also, if such “empathy” existed, subreddits like r/Dogfree and r/catfree wouldn’t exist or be incredibly niche
Ummm…I’m not sure what you guys know or believe…meaning, studies, rest, peer reviewed, and so on….
It’s just variables such as genetics (meaning complex and epigenetic), mixed with early complex associations, env, emotional…blah, blah factors…
So, the general idea right now is, if a kid/person feels nothing or zero remorse, compassion, etc….and views killing animals as “fun” for various reasons….that’s basically one of the first characteristics of being a Psychopath…
Please understand, it doesn’t mean they will turn into murderers….psychopaths live among us and appear as normal functioning people…. There’s a lot more… but that’s the gist of it…
Isn’t there evidence that (some) animals feel compassion for other species too?
Certain cultures clearly have more of a spiritual attachment and fondness almost kin like to Apes and dogs.
Some of the easiest ways to paint a bad guy as a bad guy are what they do to the animals in the story. To make a bastard asshole for the audience to hate, you make that character hurt a dog. Similarly, to humanize a character, they would treat a dog with love and tenderness. Humanity is bound by a lot more than love for those of us that are like us, maybe there’s room in our genes for those we knowingly recognize as animals, but truly appreciate them as the animals they are, and not how close they are to seeming as human themselves.
It explains why I’ll cry over a movie dog but swat a mosquito without a second thought.
We arw a species with Empathy. No evidence that defaults to only apply to ourselves. There’s videos of animals helping babies of prey species. You’re making assumptions and presenting as fact.
Eh, more like the same empathy we evolved that helped us succeed as a cooperative species is also applied to other species. There’s no ‘special companion empathy’ that was evolved. Empathy also extends beyond domestic species and can be triggered by any living and non living thing. Ever felt bad breaking a beloved toy / tool? That’s the same empathy extending beyond its original ‘purpose’.
sadly humans often don’t feel so bad when they see humans hurt
I swear, if aliens ever invade, they’ll just show us videos of sad animals and we’ll be like, Take my planet, just don’t hurt the puppies. It’s like evolution programmed us with an Aww button.
We raised wolves into Labradors then cried when Marley died. Tracks.