Moral behavior in animals | Frans de Waal
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters call it a must-watch, funny and entertaining demonstration that morality has natural roots in animals.
What it is
Frans de Waal's TED talk shows videos of behavioral experiments on primates and other mammals that reveal empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity. He argues these moral traits are not uniquely human.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2019 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec acqq · 2019-04 · on “Life of Brian at 40: an assertion of individual freedom that still resonates”
This is the video that explains the best how the "morality" is natural even in the capuchin monkeys: [LINK] So, no to those that claim that, humans aren't special, and no, the good sides of morality don't come from religion, especially not from the modern ones with a "jealous" god (killing homosexuals, or punishing women when not wearsing something, however, if that is considered "morality", indeed provably does come from religion). The whole talk: [this video]
Strong rec BeefWellington · 2021-08 · on “Goose flying upside down is simply showing off, say experts”
This is one of my favorite ted talks, on animal behaviour: [this video] The examples of animals doing things the way they do are both funny and entertaining.
Strong rec rramadass · 2024-01 · on “Hell is other people: performance management at Big Tech”
I disagree because we are not doing it based on the Science we already know now; we can do much better. From behavioural psychology/social biology/game theory(Prisoner's dilemma) etc. we know Humans naturally have a in-group vs. out-group social structure. Within a group, cooperation with trust and fairness rules and competition is generally absent or if it exists is playful. The research by Frans de Waal ( [LINK] ) on Primate Social Behaviour (Cooperation/Fairness/Empathy/Reciprocity/etc.) is path-breaking. Here is one of his excellent must-watch Ted talks - [this video] Machiavellian competition comes in only for "status"/"reward" within a group and is not the norm. Competition is more prevalen
Cites marci · 2019-10 · on “Great apes appear to have “theory of mind””
Would you call torture human guidance? [LINK] It's an extreme situation that created this, but I think if you take species in which empathy has been observed, and put them in a secure environment, where they are all well fed, I don't think it's crazy to imagine that they too will have the luxury of inter species empathy, without any human involve in that regard. In general, "That's actually why people keeps mammals in the home and not turtles or snake or something like that who don't have that kind of empathy." (Moral Behaviors in animals | Franz de Waal [this video] )