To discover if other animals have empathy. Sad (ironically), not entirely necessary but interesting and useful to discover more about ourselves, other creatures and what emotions are innate and what are learnt.
They are saying rats are more humane because of how people reacted in the Milgram experiment. Participants gave supposedly lethal shocks to others simply because they were told to do so. They didn't even get anything out of it, like how the rats got food.
It's not an implication, it is a fact. (sort of). Look up the Milgram Experiment. One of the most infamous and unethical experiments. It demonstrated that people would give lethal shocks to others, simply because an authority figure said so.
Milgrims experiment wasn't about how humane people are. It was about the power of authority over people. If people were placed in the experiment without a person of power demanding they electrocute the person answering the questions, most would not continue shocking the person.
It actually originally wanted to discover how people during the holocaust could do such horrible brutal things
Long post, brace yourselves:
From what I can tell (and admittedly I haven't done a LOT of research), this picture IS from a rat-empathy study... but not the electric shock one.
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Basically they've Done several empathy studies on rats:
-initial study involved one rat being shocked. The other rat had the ability to STOP the shock by pressing on a lever, but due to (science theorizing) their own fear response overwhelming them, they'd often just hide in the corner in a state of distress, despite not being shocked themselves.
-The next level is the one in the pic, in which a rat was constrained in a small tube while another rat was free. The free rat would be able to release the restrained rat, though it would have to figure out HOW to do so on it's own. It was observed that the free rats often would respond to the restrained's rats distress and release the restrained rat, even if they would not be able to be in contact with the rat after. OFTEN. Not always.
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(From what I can tell stipulations can include gender, with females being more likely to release, and race, with rats raised strictly with rats of their own colouration being uninclined to help rats of other colourations)
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-An additional experiment involving one rat being slowly submerged in water yielded similar results, however the rats would often only release the trapped rat once water started filling the container and the trapped rat showed signs of distress. Prior to that, they rarely would release the trapped rat.
True, only in later experiments with rats trained in and enclosed space the rats were offered chocolate chips. Instead of finishing the chocolate chips, they would often free the other rat first and then share the chocolate
@kittyrawrrawr they do mention that in the full article I link to I think (I remember reading about chocolate), but I was just trying to summarize. Still, its another good point
It actually originally wanted to discover how people during the holocaust could do such horrible brutal things
From what I can tell (and admittedly I haven't done a LOT of research), this picture IS from a rat-empathy study... but not the electric shock one.
'
Basically they've Done several empathy studies on rats:
-initial study involved one rat being shocked. The other rat had the ability to STOP the shock by pressing on a lever, but due to (science theorizing) their own fear response overwhelming them, they'd often just hide in the corner in a state of distress, despite not being shocked themselves.
'
(From what I can tell stipulations can include gender, with females being more likely to release, and race, with rats raised strictly with rats of their own colouration being uninclined to help rats of other colourations)
'
-An additional experiment involving one rat being slowly submerged in water yielded similar results, however the rats would often only release the trapped rat once water started filling the container and the trapped rat showed signs of distress. Prior to that, they rarely would release the trapped rat.