title: Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Inbal
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ben-Ami Bartal
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Decety
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mason
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological