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Rats Feel Each Other's Pain

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-wonder-my-rat-gladiator-farm-never-took-off dept.

sciencehabit writes "Empathy lets us feel another person's pain and drives us to help ease it. But is empathy a uniquely human trait? For decades researchers have debated whether nonhuman animals possess this attribute. Now a new study shows that rats will free a trapped cagemate in distress. The results mean that these rodents can be used to help determine the genetic and physiological underpinnings of empathy in people."

7 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading Headline by mr1911 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought this was going to be an article about the current election cycle.

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    1. Re:Misleading Headline by couchslug · · Score: 4, Funny

      Politicians don't have empathy, they simulate it.

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    2. Re:Misleading Headline by need4mospd · · Score: 4, Funny

      I feel your pain bro.

  2. Really Misleading Headline by dmmiller2k · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought this was going to be another article about investment bankers and the financial meltdown.

    Just saying. John Corzine has been in the news recently.

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  3. Re:"Empathy Tests" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, that's something only PETA would do.

  4. Re:Unnecessarily complicated experiment by Guppy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could have just given the rats the Voight-Kampff test.

    Yeah, they tried, but it didn't go too well.

    Researcher: "You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, . You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, but you’re not helping. Why is that?
    Rat: "Squeak?"

    Researcher: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind about your mother.
    Rat: "Squeeeeeeak!" *BITE*

  5. Racism (Specism?) by koan · · Score: 4, Funny

    They prefer the term "Rodent American" not "rat".

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