A comparative glance on self-conscious emotions: A commentary on Kret et al. (2020)

Kret et al. (2020) thoroughly reviewed expressions of basic emotions in humans and great apes and concluded that, although there are some species variations, many features of emotional expressions are conserved across humans and non-human great apes (hereafter, great apes). Here, we argue that the comparison between emotional expressions of humans and great apes is incomplete unless the whole range of emotions, including more complex self-conscious emotions is taken into account. Previously, such emotions were thought to be restricted to humans because of the advanced socio-cognitive skills they require (e.g., Parr et al., 2005). However, recent studies suggest that great apes might have these necessary socio-cognitive skills (e.g., Krupenye and Call, 2019; Krachun et al., 2019). To that end, we suggest that comparative studies on emotions should incorporate self-conscious emotions. Here, we discuss the human and great apes literature on self-conscious emotional expressions, namely embarrassment, shyness, shame, guilt, and jealousy 1 .