Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats

1« Previous thread | Next thread »
- arX
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
OP - December 10, 2011, 02:12 AM

Quote from: Science, 9 December 2011
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.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1427

Against the ruin of the world, there
is only one defense: the creative act.

-- Kenneth Rexroth
- allat
- Euphoria
- Administrator
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #1 - December 10, 2011, 02:58 AM

Whhhhaaat???!!!! But I thought morality/empathy exists solely for "God" and/or "Self Interest"??!

"Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused."
- Absurdist
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #2 - December 10, 2011, 06:36 AM

how does this demonstrate empathy? maybe they were looking for someone to mate with. maybe they wanted to be popular.

trying to understand the motives behind moral actions is very problematic.
- osmanthus
- Cave dwelling
- Pub Regular
- Fingerer of piglets
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #3 - December 10, 2011, 07:09 AM

Quote from: Abood on December 10, 2011, 06:36 AM
how does this demonstrate empathy? maybe they were looking for someone to mate with. maybe they wanted to be popular.

Those are the only reasons I ever do good stuff.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
- Absurdist
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #4 - December 10, 2011, 07:16 AM

to be honest i find the self-interest vs. altruism dichotomy stupid. why do we have to be selfless to help others? at the very least we derive great pleasure when we feel we're capable of making others happy, and i think that counts for a lot. it makes us feel wanted and needed, that we're part of a community, that we're powerful and capable of doing change. and i don't see why that needs to be a bad thing. we're too stuck in our religious morality that demands we give up our soul for something higher. we've just replaced god with a worldly higher being, "the greater good", that we must give our selves up for.
- osmanthus
- Cave dwelling
- Pub Regular
- Fingerer of piglets
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #5 - December 10, 2011, 07:18 AM

I think a lot of stuff like empathy, compassion, etc is basically a form of disguised self interest. However, it works.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
- Colonel Q-Daffi
- White Trash Sand Wigga
- Pub Regular
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #6 - December 10, 2011, 07:20 AM

u r gay

fuck you
- Absurdist
- Ex-Muslim
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #7 - December 10, 2011, 07:22 AM

only from the perspective of the self is it disguised self-interest. from the perspective of society it would be people thinking they're doing themselves good by deriving pleasure when in fact they're helping society. the problem is that "society" is not a conscious entity and therefore we tend to not see its perspective.
- osmanthus
- Cave dwelling
- Pub Regular
- Fingerer of piglets
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #8 - December 10, 2011, 07:22 AM

Oh I get the other perspectives alright.

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
- Lilyesque
- The Deconverter
- Pub Regular
- offline
Re: Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #9 - December 13, 2011, 05:07 PM

It is simple really, it is seen in wild social animals, in that if an individual goes against something in the troop they get punished therefore they don't stray again and therefore go along with things so that they survive, especially if they couldn't get enough food without a group around them. Therefore sociality and cooperation is in a way selfish as you are falling into role in order for you not to be shunned and therefore lose the benefits living in a social grouping brings, such as meerkats and sentinel behaviour, the look out meerkat only starts looking for danger once it has eaten and so is full, with those eating then taking that role allowing the prior look out meerkat to eat under protection. Meerkats on guard duty also get into the burrows quicker than those that are eating.
- Quod Sum Eris
- King of the
- Pub Regular
- offline
Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats
Reply #10 - November 24, 2015, 11:36 AM

Interesting. I'll have to look more into this.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
1« Previous thread | Next thread »