Why Mammalian Brains are Geared Toward Kindness

posted by Azra Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: Patricia Churchland in The Scientist:



Three myths about morality remain alluring:

• only humans act on moral emotions,
• moral precepts are divine in origin, and
• learning to behave morally goes against our thoroughly selfish nature.

Converging data from many sciences, including ethology, anthropology, genetics, and neuroscience, have challenged all three of these myths. First, self-sacrifice, given the pressing needs of close kin or conspecifics to whom they are attached, has been documented in many mammalian species — wolves, marmosets, dolphins, and even rodents. Birds display it too. In sharp contrast, reptiles show no hint of this impulse.

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