Rats Display Empathy in Lab Test

Yet another reason to feel lame about being human.

A study published in Science (the journal, not the enterprise) has claimed that despite their long tails and propensity to spread disease, rats may be capable of empathy. Researchers ran an experiment where a rat was released next to another rat that was trapped in a very small cage. After repeating the experiment many times with multiple rats, they found that most of the free rats were visibly distressed when they saw their trapped peers and would learn to open the cage and free their partners. Strangely, all of the female rats and only 70 per cent of the male rats were willing to help out. In a subsequent version of the trial that tempted the rats with chocolate chips, more than half of the free rats actually shared their chocolate with their newly released companions. Though scientists once believed that only humans were capable of feeling others’ pain, it looks like we are pretty much akin to rodents.