Does a rat release a soaked conspecific due to empathy?

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• 作者：Lindsay P. Schwartz ; Alan Silberberg ; Anna H. Casey ; David N. Kearns…
• 关键词：Empathy ; Social contact ; Water ; Rats
• 刊名：Animal Cognition
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：20
• 期：2
• 页码：299-308
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Behavioral Sciences; Zoology; Psychology Research;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1435-9456
• 卷排序：20

文摘

In Experiment 1, rats choosing in an E maze preferred to release a rat standing in a pool of water to dry ground over a rat already standing on dry ground. Five additional experiments showed that the choosing rat’s preference for releasing the wet rat was maintained by two separable outcomes: (1) the social contact offered by the released rat and (2) the reinforcing value of proximity to a pool of water. These results call into question Sato et al.’s (Anim Cogn 18:1039–1047, 2015) claim to have demonstrated that a rat’s releasing of a wet rat to dry ground is empathically motivated.