The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Why did we evolve to feel compassion?

With the U.S. celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.

Day, it felt like a good week to take up the question of compassion. In a week when we commemorate

human virtue, not to mention lend each other's support during our biggest community endeavor

of the year, what does it mean to offer compassion? And how did this

inclination develop? While compassion is defined a number of ways, the genuine crux of it is the

concern we have for other's struggles and suffering, coupled with the desire to lend help or

support in some regard. Rather than the vicarious emotional experience of another's difficulties,

sympathy or empathy, depending on who you talk to, or the actions we take in response to our

concern for another's situation, altruism, compassion records us more in the role of supportive

witness and perhaps motivated actor on another's behalf. While today we consider compassion one of the most esteemed human traits,

what were its origins?

Is this really a product of evolutionary forces rather than cultural response?

How could it have grown out of the rough and tough survival of the fittest world of Grok's Day?

The answer may be something of both nature and nurture, but make no mistake.

The roots of compassion are pure genetic instinct, even if modern society extends the context

for compassionate exchange.

Experts associate the development of compassion with a wide variety of key

social dimensions within expanding human social organization. They note that compassion stands as

its own emotion, differentiated from easily related feelings like sadness or even love. Compassion can

be both a trigger for and response to our care-taking instincts,

...