Empathy ... in rats ...

New study shows empathy in rats:

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... rats can be compassionate. They freed another trapped rat in their cage, even when yummy chocolate served as a tempting distraction. Twenty-three of the 30 rats in the study opened the cage. The rats could have hogged all the chocolate before freeing their partners, but often didn't, choosing to first help, then share.

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Study author Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago said females showed more empathy than males. All six females freed their trapped partner; 17 of the 24 males did so.

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Mason said the study showed that pro-social empathy is not limited to humans and primates as some people had thought. The research is reported in Thursday's journal Science.

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Read more here.Evolved behavior in social species to help others in the group before being selfish.Note the higher empathy of females vs males.To me (personal opinion) the female behavior shows an extension of mothering behavior (looking out for young) to others (who can also possibly help look out for young).We are empathic because we are social animals, and we are self-organized into groups by our empathy for other members in the group.Enjoy.

okay.If it sparks a debate then it can be move to an appropriate debate forumEnjoy.

Hi Wounded King,Even the numbers for the males are low in terms of comparison (one wonders why so few rats were used).... journal Science 08dec11
Science | AAAS
Just a moment...

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Whereas human pro-social behavior is often driven by empathic concern for another, it is unclear whether nonprimate mammals experience a similar motivational state. To test for empathically motivated pro-social behavior in rodents, we placed a free rat in an arena with a cagemate trapped in a restrainer. After several sessions, the free rat learned to intentionally and quickly open the restrainer and free the cagemate. Rats did not open empty or object-containing restrainers. They freed cagemates even when social contact was prevented. When liberating a cagemate was pitted against chocolate contained within a second restrainer, rats opened both restrainers and typically shared the chocolate. Thus, rats behave pro-socially in response to a conspecific’s distress, providing strong evidence for biological roots of empathically motivated helping behavior.

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Slightly different slant: it looks like they were testing for the presence of empathic behavior, and only needed a positive outcome in some of the tests. In this regard the number of positives is well above what could be inferred to be random behavior.Just a moment...

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A greater proportion of female rats (6/6) than male rats (17/24) in the trapped condition became door-openers (P < 0.05, χ-square), which is consistent with suggestions that females are more empathic than males (7, 12, 13). Further, female rats in the trapped condition opened the restrainer door at a shorter latency than males on days 7 to 12 (P < 0.01, MMA, Fig. 3A). Female rats were also more active than males in the trapped condition (P < 0.001, ANOVA) but not in the empty condition (Fig. 3B).

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And the testing was a little more complicated than simple single event opening tests.Enjoy.