What Ants Can Teach Us About Empathy

The Bible and Quran both say that Solomon could hear the speech of the ants. This might be the next best thing: New research shows that when Matabele ants are hurt, “injured workers are carried back to the nest where other workers treat their wounds, by licking and grooming the wound during the first three hours after injury.”

They apparently know which wounds are infected, since “infected wounds are treated more often than sterile wounds.” The practice saves lives with “the targeted use of antimicrobials.”

The lead researcher on that study toldThe Washington Post that “the solutions these ants came up with should be translatable to some extent to our own system.” Another scientist said the study “speaks very strongly to the power of evolution at both the societal and individual levels,” adding, “Societies succeed when they protect their most vulnerable.”

If that study ever does lead to new ways of healing humans, it will be because of this simple act of empathy—and what it revealed about the power of empathy in others.

Our economic goals are almost always framed as individual: my wealth, my security, my success. So are our spiritual goals, for those who have them: my salvation, my enlightenment. That’s how “mindfulness” became the handmaiden of corporate consumerism. But we’re a collectivity, not just a cluster of random individuals. The lie of natural selection overlooks the truth of survival through cooperation.

I would say that, though. I’m the guy who says “we” and “us” when asked his pronouns.

That study only happened in the first place because the lead researcher accidentally ran over a swarm of ants. “I immediately got out of the car to check how the ants were doing,” he told the Post:

It was a massive mess, ants running around frantically. But they were also looking for injured individuals, picking up and carrying back those still worth saving. To my surprise, they left behind the ants that were too heavily injured. They were performing a type of triage.

He stopped the car out of concern for the ants and saw them rendering care to each other. If that study ever does lead to new ways of healing humans, it will be because of this simple act of empathy—and what it revealed about the power of empathy in others. The wisdom of it all is almost… well, Solomonic.