I love watching videos from RSA Animate. I'm a pretty visual person, and I love the way that they tie together images and speeches so you're not just watching some guy talk for an extended period of time. Its very engaging and creative.
So, today I was watching a video on empathy. The speaker was talking about mirror neurons.Mirror neurons were first discovered in monkeys; when one monkey watched a person cracking and eating a nut, the same neurons fired in the monkey's brain as would have fired if the monkey itself were cracking and eating the nut. Humans have these same neurons and we label the emotion that they cause us to feel "empathy."
What was most interesting to me was this: If we're all soft-wired with these mirror neurons, why do some people do such horrible things to others? Do we have to have had an experience to be able to really feel those same feelings? In other words, I'm wondering if the monkey's same neurons fired because the monkey had cracked and eaten a nut before, but if the monkey were watching someone do something like talk on a cell phone, the monkey may not have been able to "empathize" because it doesn't know what it's like to talk on a cell phone. Or, perhaps mirror neurons are rather weak in some people and can be overpowered by other sociobiological factors....
Anyway, just some food for thought. Would love to hear what you think!
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