Great apes appear to have “theory of mind”

Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by bsdz on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:11AM (#21123126)

I think there are a few counter examples. Many pet owners have posted videos of their dogs and cats being protective of their (human) babies. In fact, Koko the gorilla was very affectionate towards her kittens.

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by 52-6F-62 on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @10:23AM (#21125609)

And yet my dog would also regularly show up at the back door with a freshly caught bird’s legs sticking out of her mouth even though she was provided with ample and a wide variety of food.

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by tempguy9999 on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:15PM (#21130078)

Does your dog understand that another animal can suffer, and that the bird it has is suffering?

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by 52-6F-62 on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:25PM (#21130201)

It's a complex problem. Would it matter?

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by etaioinshrdlu on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:14AM (#21123147)

Sure, but those situations probably wouldn't arise without human guidance.

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by marci on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @08:17AM (#21124458)

Would you call torture human guidance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcs-H5p-MYw

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk)

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by sooheon on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @05:13AM (#21123463)

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/08/humpback-wha...

I don't think empathy is uniquely human. That would be very unusual for a trait to have emerged fully formed for only one species in all animal kingdom--I think most things are on a gradient.

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by bsdz on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:28AM (#21123223)

Perhaps for those situations I mentioned one could argue that human guidance had a hand. However, there many other examples of cross species altruism where humans play no role (other than observational).

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Re:Great apes appear to have “theory of mind” by ses1984 on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @04:30AM (#21123231)

I believe similar situations have been observed rarely in nature, although I wonder if they were indirectly influenced by humans.

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