Nature, NPR, Wired, et al.
With a few liberating swipes of their paws, a group of research rats freed trapped labmates and raised anew the possibility that empathy isn鈥檛 unique to humans and a few extra-smart animals, but is widespread in the animal world. Though more studies are needed on the rats鈥� motivations, it鈥檚 at least plausible they demonstrated 鈥渆mpathically motivated pro-social behavior.鈥� People would generally call that helpfulness, or even kindness.
鈥淩ats help other rats in distress. That means it鈥檚 a biological inheritance,鈥� said neurobiologist Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the biological program we have.鈥�
The experiment built on research conducted several years ago by geneticist Jeff Mogil at 9I制作厂免费, where mice were shown capable of 鈥渆motional contagion鈥� 鈥� a slightly scary-sounding term denoting a tendency to become upset when cagemates were in pain. This might not seem surprising, but anecdotes from wild animal observations don鈥檛 pass academic scrutiny, and it hadn鈥檛 before been shown in captive mice. It hinted at unexpectedly sophisticated cognition: Mice were supposed to feel pain, but not each other鈥檚, at least not outside children鈥檚 stories.