Empathy as spontaneous communication: At the intersection of the traditional social and behavioral sciences and the new affective and communication sciences

Abstract

Humans have within an ongoing symphony of feelings and desires functioning as voices of the genes. Genes also broadcast their voices outside the individual organism to the world via the displays and preattunements of spontaneous communication. In this chapter, we first consider subjectively experienced affect, the roles of the individual expressivity of senders and accuracy of receivers in communication, and dyad-level accuracy in unique sender-receiver pairings. Second, we consider the development of empathy, dyad-level variables such as interpersonal immediacy and synchrony, selfish gene theory, and expressivity as a marker of honest signaling and trustworthiness. We then consider emotion and empathy in media communication including the uncanny valley, trust in machines, empathy in entertainment including silly love songs and motion pictures, and the “empathy molecule” oxytocin.