Rats Feel Each Other's Pain 200
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."
Misleading Headline (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Funny)
Politicians don't have empathy, they simulate it.
Really Misleading Headline (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.
Re:"Empathy Tests" (Score:3, Funny)
No, that's something only PETA would do.
Re:Unnecessarily complicated experiment (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*
Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Funny)
Racism (Specism?) (Score:4, Funny)
They prefer the term "Rodent American" not "rat".