No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Cooperative care as origins of the “happy ape”?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2023
Abstract
Grossmann proposes an interesting framework to explain how heightened fearfulness among humans could be evolutionarily adaptive in the context of cooperative care. I would like to propose that cooperative care may also be a potential mechanism promoting enhanced happiness expression among humans, shedding light on questions about the scope and boundary of the fearful ape hypothesis.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aradhye, C., Vonk, J., & Arida, D. (2015). Adults’ responsiveness to children's facial expressions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 135, 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.02.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aragón, O. R., Clark, M. S., Dyer, R. L., & Bargh, J. A. (2015). Dimorphous expressions of positive emotion: Displays of both care and aggression in response to cute stimuli. Psychological Science, 26(3), 259–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614561044CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrera, M. E., & Maurer, D. (1981). The perception of facial expressions by the three-month-old. Child Development, 52(1), 203–206. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129231CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, D. V., & Srinivasan, N. (2014). The vividness of the happy face. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(3), 189–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414533702CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolzani Dinehart, L. H., Messinger, D. S., Acosta, S. I., Cassel, T., Ambadar, Z., & Cohn, J. (2005). Adult perceptions of positive and negative infant emotional expressions. Infancy, 8(3), 279–303. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327078in0803_5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braungart-Rieker, J. M., Garwood, M. M., Powers, B. P., & Wang, X. (2001). Parental sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation: Predictors of later attachment. Child Development, 72(1), 252–270. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00277CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coffey, J. K., Warren, M. T., & Gottfried, A. W. (2015). Does infant happiness forecast adult life satisfaction? Examining subjective well-being in the first quarter century of life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(6), 1401–1421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9556-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Waal, F. (2019). Mama's last hug: Animal emotions and what they tell us about ourselves. WW Norton.Google Scholar
Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7(3), 181–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00354.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, E., Kanazawa, S., Suh, E. M., & Oishi, S. (2015). Why people are in a generally good mood. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(3), 235–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314544467CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erreygers, S., Vandebosch, H., Vranjes, I., Baillien, E., & De Witte, H. (2019). Feel good, do good online? Spillover and crossover effects of happiness on adolescents’ online prosocial behavior. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(4), 1241–1258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-0003-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, P., & Volk, A. A. (2018). A review of infants’ and children's facial cues’ influence on adults’ perceptions and behaviors. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 12(4), 296. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruber, J., Mauss, I. B., & Tamir, M. (2011). A dark side of happiness? How, when, and why happiness is not always good. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), 222–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611406927CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isen, A. M., & Levin, P. F. (1972). Effect of feeling good on helping: Cookies and kindness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21(3), 384. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0032317CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kret, M. E., Prochazkova, E., Sterck, E. H., & Clay, Z. (2020). Emotional expressions in human and non-human great apes. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 115, 378–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.027CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuchuk, A., Vibbert, M., & Bornstein, M. H. (1986). The perception of smiling and its experiential correlates in three-month-old infants. Child Development, 57(4), 1054–1061. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130379CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lobmaier, J. S., Sprengelmeyer, R., Wiffen, B., & Perrett, D. I. (2010). Female and male responses to cuteness, age and emotion in infant faces. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.05.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otake, K., Shimai, S., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Otsui, K., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2006). Happy people become happier through kindness: A counting kindnesses intervention. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(3), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-3650-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parr, L. A., & Waller, B. M. (2006). Understanding chimpanzee facial expression: Insights into the evolution of communication. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1(3), 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsl031CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parsons, C. E., Young, K. S., Bhandari, R., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Stein, A., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2014). The bonnie baby: Experimentally manipulated temperament affects perceived cuteness and motivation to view infant faces. Developmental Science, 17(2), 257–269. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12112CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strathearn, L., Li, J., Fonagy, P., & Montague, P. R. (2008). What's in a smile? Maternal brain responses to infant facial cues. Pediatrics, 122(1), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-1566CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young-Browne, G., Rosenfeld, H. M., & Horowitz, F. D. (1977). Infant discrimination of facial expressions. Child Development, 48(2), 555–562. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128653CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, Y., Chen, X., Li, D., Liu, J., & Yang, F. (2022). Growing up happy: Longitudinal relations between children's happiness and their social and academic functioning. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2093783CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Target article
The human fear paradox: Affective origins of cooperative care
Related commentaries (28)
A novel(ty) perspective of fear bias
Are we virtuously caring or just anxious?
Beyond the fearful ape hypothesis: Humans are also supplicating and appeasing apes
Conceptualization, context, and comparison are key to understanding the evolution of fear
Cooperative care as origins of the “happy ape”?
Cultural evolution needed to complete the Grossmann theory
Developmental and evolutionary models of social fear can address “the human fear paradox”
Fear can promote competition, defensive aggression, and dominance complementarity
Fear signals vulnerability and appeasement, not threat
Fearful apes or emotional cooperative breeders?
Fearful apes or nervous goats? Another look at functions of dispositions or traits
Fearful apes, happy apes: Is fearfulness associated with uniquely human cooperation?
Fearfulness: An important addition to the starter kit for distinctively human minds
Heightened fearfulness as a developmental adaptation
Heightened fearfulness in infants is not adaptive
Hominin life history, pathological complexity, and the evolution of anxiety
How “peer-fear” of others' evaluations can regulate young children's cooperation
Infants aren't biased toward fearful faces
Is there a human fear paradox? A more thorough use of comparative data to test the fearful ape hypothesis
More than fear: Contributions of biobehavioral synchrony and infants' reactivity to cooperative care
Social learning and the adaptiveness of expressing and perceiving fearfulness
The adaptiveness of fear (and other emotions) considered more broadly: Missed literature on the nature of emotions and its functions
The dark side of fear expression: Infant crying as a trigger for maladaptive parental responses
The human fear paradox turns out to be less paradoxical when global changes in human aggression and language evolution are considered
The power of the weak: When altruism is the equilibrium
The suffering ape hypothesis
Under greater cooperative care, childhood fear is more accommodated, but less warranted
We aren't especially fearful apes, and fearful apes aren't especially prosocial
Author response
Extending and refining the fearful ape hypothesis