Empathy is a complex, multi‐dimensional capacity that facilitates the sharing and understanding of others' emotions. As our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (P. troglodytes) provide an opportunity to explore the origins of hominin social cognition, including empathy. Despite certain assumptions that bonobos and chimpanzees may differ empathically, these species appear to overlap considerably in certain socio‐emotional responses related to empathy. However, few studies have systematically tested for species variation in Pan empathic or socio‐emotional tendencies. To address this, we synthesise the growing literature on Pan empathy to inform our understanding of the selection pressures that may underlie the evolution of hominin empathy, and its expression in our last common ancestor. As bonobos and chimpanzees show overlaps in their expression of complex socio‐emotional phenomena such as empathy, we propose that group comparisons may be as or more meaningful than species comparisons when it comes to understanding the evolutionary pressures for such behaviour. Furthermore, key differences, such as how humans and Pan communicate, appear to distinguish how we experience empathy compared to our closest living relatives.

中文翻译：

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人类近亲倭黑猩猩和黑猩猩的同理心表达：当前和未来的方向

同理心是一种复杂的、多维的能力，有助于分享和理解他人的情感。作为我们现存的最亲近的亲戚，倭黑猩猩（鳅）和黑猩猩（穴居人）提供了一个探索人类社会认知（包括同理心）起源的机会。尽管某些假设认为倭黑猩猩和黑猩猩在共情上可能有所不同，但这些物种在与共情相关的某些社会情感反应中似乎有相当大的重叠。然而，很少有研究系统地测试物种变异平底锅共情或社会情感倾向。为了解决这个问题，我们综合了越来越多的文献平底锅共情让我们了解可能是人类共情进化背后的选择压力，以及它在我们最后的共同祖先中的表达。由于倭黑猩猩和黑猩猩在表达复杂的社会情感现象（例如同理心）方面表现出重叠，因此我们认为，在理解此类行为的进化压力时，群体比较可能与物种比较一样或更有意义。此外，关键的差异，例如人类和平底锅沟通，似乎可以区分我们与我们在世的最亲近的亲戚相比如何体验同理心。