Calling someone a rat may be complimentary. According to a study published in the December 9, 2011, issue of Science, rats can be surprisingly selfless.

University of Chicago neuroscientist Peggy Mason and psychologists Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal and Jean Decety placed pairs of rats in pens. One rat was caged in the middle of the pen, whereas the other was free to run around. In this experi­ment, 23 of 30 rats liberated their peers by head butting the cage door or leaning against the door until it tipped over.
To actually test the rodents’ selflessness, Mason placed rats in pens with two cages: in one was another rat; in the other was a pile of chocolate chips. The unhindered rats could easily have eaten the chocolate themselves. Instead most of the rodents opened both cages and shared the sweets. “In rat land, that is big,” Mason says. This is the first study to show altruistic behavior in rodents.

McGill University psychologist Jeffrey Mogil was impressed with Mason’s study, but both he and Mason point out that the jailbreaking rats might only be trying to silence their cohorts’ distressing alarm calls. Mason thinks the alarm calls are not frequent enough to motivate the rats; Mogil is not so sure.

Mason’s new study is just one in a series of recent experiments that have changed how scientists think about empathy and altruism—namely, that such characteristics are not limited to people, as they once thought. It now seems that many animals have evolved instincts to help others, even at a cost to themselves, and that we inherited these same instincts. “The bottom line,” Mason says, “is that helping an individual in distress is part of our biology.” 

This article was published in print as "Will You Rat Me Out?"

11 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 08:14 AM 5/22/12

   “is that helping an individual in distress is part of our biology.” ....true, unless of course the mouse, or human, has looked at photos of comfort food like ice cream or fudge brownies, and then they will say, "Sorry, you're on your own buddy."
   
   When I watch 'America's Funniest Home Videos', and a child gets hurt, the family dog is always there first to offer help. It never fails, the dog is always there first. I depend on my dog for help more than I do on the family doctor. My dog is always there and the family doctor is always at the golf course, especially if he has just ate, or looked at, a fudge brownie.

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2. 2. ACTORwriter 09:08 AM 5/22/12

   Yes, calling someone "A RAT" might be a compliment; AND calling someone "A BIRDBRAIN" should be a compliment. I have birds [robins, chickadees and hummingbirds] that will fly to my hand for food. Even after they've been away due to migration for some five months, they pick right up where they left off, remembering what I look like and recalling "the drill" exactly. Can you tell one robin from another? I can't. These birds obviously can do that.
   

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3. 3. Richieo 09:15 AM 5/22/12

   No doubt a far better result than if humans had been the lab rats.

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4. 4. promytius 10:10 AM 5/22/12

   rats...human traits...right. I learned the word anthropomorphism in the fourth grade! Did these observant scientists miss this little kink in their theory? Humans see things through human eyes. Rats see things through rat eyes. We are capable of gross errors of "observing 'human' behavior," while rats are not. No rat has EVER formed the thought, "Oh, that's so RAT!" - oh wait, am I acting like a scientist and projecting my reality onto theirs? Oh my!

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5. 5. snipadon 10:35 AM 5/22/12

   It may be that the rats response to the distress call of its neighbor is not a counterindication of the altruism.
   The experiment does explore the nature and origin of the behavior in humans.

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6. 6. r0b3m4n 12:13 PM 5/22/12

   @ promytius -
   
   I'm not sure there is a single true statement in your entire comment box above. Why does altruism need to be a "human trait"? Because humans do it? You do realize mice and humans have alot in common and it's not all anthropomorphism, right? Why would you expect an animal 99.8% genetically similar to us to have none of our traits? Have you ever heard the word Anthropocentrism?

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7. 7. r0b3m4n 12:14 PM 5/22/12

   @ promytius -
   
   I'm not sure there is a single true statement in your entire comment box above. Why does altruism need to be a "human trait"? Because humans do it? You do realize mice and humans have alot in common and it's not all anthropomorphism, right? Why would you expect an animal 99.8% genetically similar to us to have none of our traits? Have you ever heard the word Anthropocentrism?

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8. 8. r0b3m4n in reply to promytius 12:14 PM 5/22/12

   @ promytius -
   
   I'm not sure there is a single true statement in your entire comment box above. Why does altruism need to be a "human trait"? Because humans do it? You do realize mice and humans have alot in common and it's not all anthropomorphism, right? Why would you expect an animal 99.8% genetically similar to us to have none of our traits? Have you ever heard the word Anthropocentrism?

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9. 9. r0b3m4n 12:26 PM 5/22/12

   doh - sorry for dup posts, had problems with browser popping a window.

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10. 10. brublr 06:43 PM 5/22/12

    I had a rodent move in once. Late at night in various inaccessible places in the apartment, I could hear it farting. It only did this to annoy me. They have this really crass sense of humor and they never take showers. It wouldn't leave even though I asked it nicely, so I got a trap and killed it. I don't care how sensitive, caring or open-hearted they are; rodents and I will never get along.

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11. 11. george19 12:58 PM 5/23/12

    Maybe this will motivate researchers to leave the poor little rats alone.

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