@unpublished{cogprints1042,
           title = {Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases},
          author = {Stephanie D. Preston and Frans B. M. de Waal},
            year = {2000},
        keywords = {emotion; perspective taking; emotional contagion; cognitive empathy; comparative; evolution; altruism; perception-action},
             url = {http://cogprints.org/1042/},
        abstract = {The empathy literature is characterized by debate regarding the nature of the phenomenon. We propose a unified theory of empathy, divided into ultimate and proximate levels, grounded in the emotional link between individuals. On an ultimate level, emotional linkage supports group alarm, vicariousness of emotions, mother-infant responsiveness, and the modeling of competitors and predators; these exist across species and greatly effect reproductive success. Proximately, emotional linkage arises from a direct mapping of another's behavioral state onto a subject's behavioral representations, which activate responses in the subject. This ultimate and proximate account parsimoniously explains different phylogenetic and ontogenetic levels of empathy.}
}

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