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.
PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS TRUE.
It is!
So we had to be unempathetic and torture one rat to see the empathy in another rat? It’s easy to see empathy in other animals, it can be done using qualitative research (this can be done outside of a lab) no vivisection needed. This study teaches us more about human’s empathy than it does about animal’s empathy.
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