The rat that opens a door and shares its chocolate
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In a laboratory, a rat learns to open the door of a tube holding a trapped companion. Sometimes, it also leaves part of its chocolate for its partner. Why would it do that, when it gets nothing in return?
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In one experiment, free rats learn over several sessions to open the tube that holds another rat. They do not open empty tubes, or tubes containing only a toy.
The most striking test pitted freeing a rat against five chocolate chips placed in a second tube. The rats ate slightly less chocolate than in the control condition, and shared it in about half of the trials.
The explanations remain debated. Another reading points instead to the desire for social contact and neophobia, rather than empathy. The results also depend on familiarity with the other rat, and they concern laboratory rats.
