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In navigating the maze of reasons why humans find happiness in being social, we might look to rats for help.
Peggy Mason, a neurobiologist out of the University of Chicago, has conducted a new study that suggests rats are capable of pro-social or "helping" behavior, revealing a previously unknown level of empathy in the long-tailed creatures.
In the past, rats have been known to exhibit only the most basic form of empathy known as "emotional contagion," the same phenomenon that explains why the cries of one baby can make a group of nearby babies suddenly wail.
As described in the December issue of Science, Mason and her team placed a helper rat in an arena with another rat trapped in a plexiglass restrainer. Over the course of 12 days, the helper rats felt compelled to free the distressed rat from the restrainer, even without hearing vocalized cries for help.
Empty restrainers or those that contained a toy rat were never opened. And even when tempted with a restrainer of five chocolate chips, the helper rat opened it and the one containing its caged friend. Then, the helper rat shared its treats. If you happen to be a chocolate lover, you know how hard that must have been.
Following the liberation, both rats engaged in the human equivalent of the high five: there was licking and chasing and general merriment. The helper rats continued to assist their friends even when the freed rat was forced to travel into a separate arena, leaving the helper with no promise of prolonged social contact.
The act of freeing a friend with an absence of reward and no promise of further social interaction has led Mason to state, "Empathy is a biological mandate. It's in our brain." Researchers in the fields of primatology and neuroscience have responded to the new findings, agreeing that at the very least, this study opens the door to future research in empathy and altruism.
If empathy is indeed a part of our biological make-up and contributes to how we forge positive relationships with others, it makes you wonder how much of our brain is actually programmed to seek happiness. And share chocolate.
