Regarding Primates and Our Shared Glow of Altruism
A funny and educational thing happened to me last week, while searching the Internet for information regarding the background of the Political Primate. I would love to write an article about him since I cite many of his videos. Actually, I’d love to interview him for my website. Trust me. I have tried for hours to find a link to him, including on YouTube, but I have failed.
In the midst of my journey of failed discovery, I discovered Dr. Frans de Waal. His doctoral presentation was Agonistic Interactions and Relations among Java Monkeys. I didn’t know that Java had monkeys. The only science class that I took during college, graduate school, and post-graduate education was geology. Therefore, the limited information that I had was from reading about primates on my own. I still knew nothing about macaque monkeys’ aggressive behavior until I stumbled upon de Waal.
As a primatologist, de Waal has written a dozen books on our genetic ancestors. They deal with how they act with each other in their various social orders. His exploration of our predecessors added much to our knowledge of them. He additionally corrected our misconceptions regarding our primate relatives. In The Age of Empathy, he wrote:
We start out postulating sharp boundaries, such as between humans and apes, or between apes and monkeys, but are in fact dealing with sand castles that lose much of their structure when the sea of knowledge washes over them. They turn into hills, leveled ever more, until we are back to where evolutionary theory always leads us: a gently sloping beach.
In an interview with Frans de Waal, he mentioned alpha males. The interviewer asked about alpha males among humans. De Waal saw little difference between humans and the other primates.
The interviewer also wanted de Waal to discuss the bonobos. Listen to de Waal’s explanation.
During that same interview, de Waal spoke about altruism among all primates, including human beings.
De Waal redefined altruism. Altruism is a given among primates. We and all other primates instinctively do things that we label altruistic. Our acts might benefit others. Nevertheless, we also benefit. De Waal describes our feeling as glow altruism. The giver benefits as much as the receiver.
I have written hundreds of articles discussing the glow of altruism. My description in a simple, one-liner: “It is in giving that we get.” If you don’t grasp my truism, you haven’t helped others. Gifts to others can be simply words of encouragement. Or it can be gifts of our time or talent. This is the follow-up to my one-liner saying. “The more we give, the more we get.”
This is Frans de Waal dealing with emotions and empathy.
This is a BBC audio play regarding Frans de Waal.
This is Emory University’s tribute to Frans de Waal.
This link contains many videos of Frans de Waal's lectures on TED.
This is a list of Frans de Waal’s books.
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09/22/25