How Nice Are We? | Clipmarks


	How Nice Are We?

RayWatkins

10-9-2009 12:57 PM

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RayWatkins says:

What chimps can teach us about our mess of emotions.

By Christine Kenneally
Posted Monday, Oct. 5, 2009, at 7:03 AM ET

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/fbd61289-b096-4680-8cee-9f5023481a5d/CAC6A728-4A2D-4322-A271-B6F70E4EAFF3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.slate.com/id/2231320/pagenum/all/" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2231320/pagenum/all/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.slate.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2231320/pagenum/all/"><P><SPAN class="imagewrapper"><IMG height="222" width="150" alt="The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal." src="http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/122946/2207169/2231319/091005_Book_Empathy.jpg" /></SPAN>Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, believes that it's just as natural to be nice as it is be mean. Man may be wolf to man, as the old saying has it, but de Waal points out with casual eloquence in <EM><A target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307407764?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307407764">The Age of Empathy</A></EM> that wolves are often quite lovely to one another.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2231320/pagenum/all/"><P>The scientific history of good nature in humans and other animals is a notably short one. Feelings like sympathy and concern, as well as acts of charity and nurture, have traditionally been ignored or dismissed. The study of niceness was a casualty of the Behaviorist school of psychology in the early 20<SUP>th</SUP> century, which defined the cognitive and emotional lives of animals out of existence altogether. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/CAC6A728-4A2D-4322-A271-B6F70E4EAFF3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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