empathy in primates

Two videos went “viral” among my Facebook friends this week. I share them with you here because who living in these rancorous times couldn’t use a little sweet-natured humor.

More germane to this blog’s brain-based focus, however, I was struck by how each video demonstrated qualities of empathy. Yes, I know. Recently, some politicians have publicly scorned empathy — perhaps because they mistakenly equate it with weakness. But , as a third video explains, leading neuroscientists say that our society depends on empathy. In other words, we’d do best to nourish empathy, not castigate it.