Summary of Documental - Entre tú y yo, la empatía

00:00:00 - 00:50:00

The importance of empathy is discussed in relation to human survival. The role of empathy in cooperation and its importance in preserving the balance of the world are explored.

• 00:00:00 The video documents the development of empathy, which is the ability to feel what another person feels without losing oneself. It shows how empathy is a fundamental part of human relationships, and how it starts from the earliest stages of life. It also explains how parental care and affection helps develop empathy in children.
• 00:05:00 This video documents the behaviors of humans and chimpanzees in social settings, and how these behaviors differ. The documentary discusses how certain human-specific behaviors, like language and empathy, emerge during early development, and how comparative studies have shown that chimpanzee social behavior is strikingly similar to that of human infants in their early development. The documentary also cites research that points to the importance of social interaction in human development, and how chimpanzees are not capable of engaging in social interaction on their own.
• 00:10:00 The video shows scientists testing a collar that measures the empathy levels of people. One of the researchers demonstrates how to use the collar to measure the empathy of a person sitting in front of them. The person being measured is shown a picture of a person with tears in their eyes, and then is shown a picture of a person who is happy. The person being measured is then asked to think about how the person in the happy picture feels, and to also think about how the person in the tear-filled picture feels. The researcher then asks the person being measured to choose which picture they feel more empathy for. Most people choose the picture of the person who is happy, despite the fact that the person in the happy picture is actually crying. This video provides an overview of empathy, its three main dimensions, and how children develop empathy from a very early age. It also explains how adults can develop empathy by observing and taking into account the emotions of others.
• 00:15:00 In this documentary, "Entre tú y yo, la empatía," Hannah, an assistant research scientist, accidentally knocks over a glass and needs help to pick it up. She knows that she could pass to the other side of the screen if she ran to pick it up. However, the father of her soul runs to pick it up instead. This scenario repeats itself three times, with the father's eyes dilating three times as he sees he can't help. This creates great agitation in the soul, and when his father stops holding the cord, she picks up the glass and her pupil's size returns to normal. Through study, we found that children not only want to be necessarily the one who provides help, but do not mind if someone else helps them. This satisfies them equally, and suggests that the impulse to help is not motivated by egoism, but rather a sincere concern for the welfare of the other person. In contrast, chimpanzees are able to help. Alexandra, who was raised by a human mother, helps spontaneously, but was conditioned to do so by her mother. If the rats are placed in a situation where they are not motivated by food competition or dominance, they help each other. Human beings have this innate ability, and
• 00:20:00 In the video, Peggy Mason, a researcher at the University of Parma, discusses the results of a study she conducted in which she administered an antidepressant to a rat. The rat's anxiety levels decreased, and it no longer showed any interest in freeing itself. The same situation happened when the antidepressant was administered to the rat free of any emotion. This experiment provides tangible evidence that emotion is what motivates rats to help a fellow rat in distress. Vittorio Gade, one of the study's participants, shares his theory that emotions are transmitted through mimicry. When we see a dynamic action portrayed in a work of art, our subconscious mind replicates the gesture. This process is activated both when we act and when we observe someone else acting. Fontana begins his career as a contemporary artist by cutting a canvas with a razor. His action creates a spatial concept, and the audience in Wales is shown a group of individuals or photographs of cuts. Our hypothesis is that one of the things that triggers in us when we are confronted with a work of art is the simulation of the gesture that produced it. The study's researcher tells the participants that they will be viewing images of cuts without knowing beforehand which is which. The activity of their brains
• 00:25:00 This video documents how participants in an EEG experiment activated the representation of the motor cortex when viewing a cut-out of a person's hand, but not when viewing a line on a monitor. This experiment has shown that when we look at the low points of a fountain, we enter into a relationship and are not subjective with the artist even though he is not there. The motor cortex of our brain simulates the gesture he used to make the cut-out, through the gesture itself. This transmission of intention and emotion is conveyed through the Griffin paintings of Jackson Pollock and the Action Painting of French painter Franscesco Lines. Neither of these works make an equivalent process. The body is always there, whether I'm looking at a painted or sculpted body or establishing a relationship with a body of the artist. The mechanism that is activated when we contemplate an angle is the same that is activated when we see a suspended performer on a wire. We feel fear or fear for him at first, but the difference is very subtle. At the beginning, we project ourselves onto what he is doing and we have the impression of being ourselves walking on the emptiness. We feel fear for him, and we are infected emotionally with him. We have to take distance from that kind of
• 00:30:00 This video examines the relationship between empathy and mentalization, and the difficulties that people with autism or depression often experience in being able to empathize with others. It features a study in which19 juvenile criminals who had been abandoned by their families at a young age were given videos designed specifically for the study. The videos showed people of different races and ethnicities expressing different emotions, and the researchers asked the children to identify which emotions they were seeing. The children with autism and depression exhibited significantly less muscle activity when viewing happy and sad emotions compared to angry emotions, and when asked to identify emotions from a face, they were almost always wrong. This demonstrates that, even at a young age, children with autism or depression are less able to identify emotions accurately.
• 00:35:00 In this video, a researcher presents evidence that oxitocin, a hormone produced during breastfeeding, could help people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) improve their social skills. While it is still unclear exactly how oxitocin works, it appears to help people with ASD build confidence and empathy, two key skills necessary for social communication. The researcher also suggests that administering oxitocin might help people with ASD overcome their basic social deficit. This could in turn lead to better understanding of the actions and emotions of others, and improved interactions with others. At the end of the video, the researcher gives a demonstration of the effect oxitocin has on a person with ASD playing a game of catch. Under the effect of oxitocin, all the players appear to act equally well, which the person with ASD is able to distribute the ball fairly among all of them. This demonstrates that he/she understands that there are different types of social interactions and that those three people are interacting with him/her in three different ways.
• 00:40:00 The video demonstrates how a game of catch between two children can be a complicated interaction. Pelota first decided to send the ball to each player, but if no one responds positively, she no longer sends it. Maikel Tomasello, a researcher studying social interactions in children with autism, explains that the oxytocin hormone may help people with autism to understand social situations better, but that stress has a negative effect on the amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for emotional responses. However, placebo effects (the improvement in symptoms caused by administering a substance without any real therapeutic effects) can be observed when oxytocin is administered before playing the game of catch. It is suggested that improving social understanding may help autistic people to better cooperate and learn social concepts.
• 00:45:00 In this video, researchers demonstrate the ability of chimpanzees to cooperate and share resources, demonstrating the development of high-level moral behavior. They also discuss the inhibition of empathy in humans, citing our preference for group membership as one reason. This phenomenon is explored in relation to a three-year project to create a human-chimpanzee team.
• 00:50:00 The documentary, "Entre tú y yo, la empatía," discusses the importance of empathy and its role in human survival. Darwin believed that our ability to cooperate was what led to our dominance over our cultures and civilizations, and today, empathy is still essential in preserving the balance of the world. The choice is ours - to embrace empathy or to lose our own way.