# Frans de Waal **Domain:** Primatology / moral evolution **Doc Type:** Person Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **Frans de Waal** was a primatologist who argued that empathy, reciprocity, and other building blocks of morality have deep evolutionary roots. In a 2007 interview he described the historical in-group function of morality while explicitly rejecting the idea that primate research dictates that humans should not care about outsiders. ## Relationships - **Interviewed by:** Tamler Sommers in [*The Believer* (2007)](https://www.thebeliever.net/an-interview-with-frans-de-waal/). - **Foundational book:** [[wiki/Chimpanzee Politics|Chimpanzee Politics]] records rank signaling, coalition, rivalry, reconciliation, and socially sustained power in the Arnhem chimpanzee colony. - **Comparative article:** [[blog/20261007 - The Prayers of Primates|The Prayers of Primates]] routes de Waal's observations through [[wiki/Pant-Grunt|Pant-Grunt]], [[wiki/Primate Rank-Maintenance|Primate Rank-Maintenance]], and [[wiki/Submission to Hierarchy|Submission to Hierarchy]]. - **Comparative topic:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] includes both evolved cooperation and competition; [[wiki/Dehumanization|Dehumanization]] examines a distinct contemporary social process rather than a moral instruction from his research. - **Article comparison:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] is a separate evolutionary-history trajectory, not a source for de Waal's position. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “I think that human morality evolved as an ingroup phenomenon, to strengthen the in-group and increase its cohesiveness. This was partly needed for competition with other groups.” > **— Frans de Waal**, *The Believer interview, 2007* [[reminders/Human Animality/Morality Began Within the Group by Frans de Waal|Morality Began Within the Group by Frans de Waal]] ## Sources - [Tamler Sommers, interview with Frans de Waal, *The Believer* (2007)](https://www.thebeliever.net/an-interview-with-frans-de-waal/). - Frans de Waal, *Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes*.