Moral behavior in animals

Observing moral behaviour in other animals helps elucidate the evolutionary underpinnings of human morality. In this lecture Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.

Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals | Video on TED.com.

de Waal’s first book, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes
(1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. Ever since, de Waal has drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from peacemaking and morality to culture. His scientific work has been published in hundreds of technical articles in journals such as Science, Nature, Scientific American, and outlets specialized in animal behavior.His latest books are Our Inner Ape
(2005) and
The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society
(2009).

Similar articles

3 responses to “Moral behavior in animals

  1. Pingback: My theory based on a blog by ‘openpachute.wordpress.com’… « My journey of healing from psychological abuse

  2. lifebegins45

    Great blog! thank you for posting it :D…One sign of a great one is, if it causes the reader to think… I’m definitely thinking! Thanks for waking the dead 🙂 lol! have a wonderful evening.

    Like

  3. Challenging Lazy Thinking

    Any visit to a zoo (putting aside how we feel about zoo’s as a place to keep animals) and take time to just watch our ape cousins leaves you with a wonderful feeling of how we are connected. Forgive my unscientific approach/observation, but it is just obvious that we share the same evolution. Watching their mannerisms and general behaviour, how alike we are!
    Every time a visit a natural history museum I come away invigorated that we as humans currently exist because of everything that went before!
    Great video.

    Like

Leave a Reply: please be polite to other commenters & no ad hominems.