Proudly geeky // feignedsobriquet: poupon: sesca: katreus: ...

Hi, I'm Sarah. Indonesian, loves to draw and wish that her drawing can help make the world a beautiful place :) This is the place where I put and share things that inspire me and hopefully will inspire you too.

feignedsobriquet:

poupon:

sesca:

katreus:

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive — which is a lot to expect of a rat.

The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy — and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.

“A New Model of Empathy: The Rat” by David Brown, Washington Post

Science!

Unlike dolphins, rats are cool!

Unfortunately, that link isn’t working for me but I’m wondering if the sex of the rats effected anything, or if the rats were different species, would that altruistic/empathetic behavior change? I can think of a few selfish or non-empathetic reasons why an animal would want another animal of its kind out and about.

They also opened the restrainers even when they were prevented from socialising with the trapped rat afterwards, ruling out social interaction as a possible motivation. Rather, “they learned how to open the restrainer because they were internally motivated to liberate the trapped rat,” said Bartal.

Social rats trade chocolate for cagemates