thank you for coming my name is Reed R
and I’m here to talk about empathy and
how it affects animals and humans so
first what is empathy empathy is the
ability to really connect with somebody
really understand or try to understand
what they’re feeling it’s a little
scenario if you’re at recess and you see
somebody fell down and they scraped
their knee and they’re hurt your instant
reaction would probably be are they okay
should I go get somebody is everything
all right
that is Eponine because you care about
the fact that they’re not feeling well
so now that you have that in mind I have
two big questions for you one our
animals capable of expressing empathy
I believe yet and to does brain size and
complexity matter so if you have a human
brain that’s bigger and you have an
animal brain that’s smaller it is the
bigger brain that shows more empathy or
is it the smaller one I’m here to tell
you that size and complexity doesn’t
matter all right so I’m gonna be talking
about two animals
the first one is monkeys and the second
one are birds so you have your human
brain over there
it’s pretty big it’s eight to ten pounds
very impressive in structure and
function all that amazing stuff then you
have your monkey brain over there you
can see that it’s significantly smaller
maybe less impressive as you would say
you might not think that they’re that
intelligent because our brains are
bigger but that’s not true they’re very
intelligent and they’re very empathetic
so there was a scenario in India there
were two monkeys one monkey was hurt and
it was in pain it was injured and it was
unconscious on the side of a railroad
track there’s another monkey that came
along and saw it and instead of leaving
it stayed with that monkey it didn’t
just sit there
it tried to resuscitate it and it tried
to get it to regain consciousness it
tried to dunk its head in a puddle of
water to try to get it to wake up
it gently hit it or bid it and it kind
of shows you that it’s almost human like
if you think about it if you’re dizzy
and you’re not feeling well you might be
told to splash some water on your face
it’s kind of like what this monkey was
doing for his friend I’m also aware that
hitting and biting isn’t necessarily
compassionate or nurturing but for these
animals is called inhibited biting so
you don’t use your sharp teeth to hurt
the animal it’s actually meant for
grooming and for comforting and for
consolation so this is what that monkey
was doing so it shows you what these
animals are very intelligent
this monkey very intelligent – yes they
do show empathy 3 brain size doesn’t
matter because you’ve seen it up here
still very empathetic second animal
birds now you can see the difference
here you have your eight to ten pound
human brain and you have your bird brain
it’s approximately on average the size
of a walnut
so with these small brains you might
think not as interesting not as
impressive we’re obviously more
interesting because we have a bigger
brain not true
so another scenario birds are very
intelligent creatures you can see this
especially in your New Caledonian crow
these crows with research and all that
they can reason and understand as well
as a human child as up to five to six
years old now with that small of a brain
you can see why that’s impressive
also we’ve established that it’s
intelligent now what about empathy these
birds are very empathetic and a specific
example is the Eurasian Jay so you have
your mail and you’ve you’re female and
you have all their kids the female will
stay with its kids in the nest and the
male will go out and get food for
everyone for the family and instead of
getting food that the male prefers to
eat it gets food that the female prefers
to eat meaning it observes
the female likes and it goes out and it
gets that and specific so realize
scenario that we can all relate to say
dad wants steak and fries and mom wants
chicken and dad goes out and gets
chicken and he comes back this shows you
that the dad does observe and does care
about what the mom’s preferences he made
that decision to go out and to get
chicken and he’ll do this again and
again it’s the same thing with these
birds it shows you that these birds
understand what’s going on they’re very
intelligent and they care about their
mates preferences and emotions so we’ve
been through a lot so quick summary is
that we have three brains first one is
human second is monkey third is bird
they all vary in size they all vary in
complexity my second point is you see
these monkeys and their birds and you
know that they show so much empathy
regardless of their smaller brain size
and less impressive structure thinking
further these animals such as monkeys
and birds can do all these amazing
things related to empathy but their
brains aren’t as complex so this makes
you wonder how much potential they have
in the future I mean science and
research it’s still going on they’re
still trying to decide and discover how
much empathy these animals are actually
capable of also in your real life
situation and daily basis next time you
go anywhere you should really notice
these animals so if you see an animal
don’t automatically assume that they’re
not as impressive and they’re not as
intelligent because you’ve seen with
these monkeys and birds they’re very
capable of all these amazing things
thank you [Applause]