RATS Officially Make the NICE LIST this Year! New Study With Surprising Results [VIDEO]

Rats Have Made the NICE LIST This Year- NEW EXPERIMENT With Surprising Results [VIDEO]

Very creative experiment conducted with 30 rats, male and female, to test for the presence of intelligent empathy and compassion- traits often thought to be exclusive to humans.
(though I think most of us know better! )

New experiments show rats demonstrating compassion and helping other rodents. It's a trait some scientists thought was reserved only for humans and higher primates.

"Basically they told us (freeing another rat) is as important as eating chocolate," said study author Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago. "That's a very striking thing."
In some cases, the rats first took the chocolate chips out of a container, but didn't eat them, then freed the other rat and shared "almost as if they were serving them chocolate," Mason said. The research is reported in Thursday's journal Science. Also, females showed more consistent empathy than males, Mason said.

LINK TO HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE:
Rats' Bad Rap: Study shows them nice, not naughty!

Even plants have empathy

Thanks for sharing, as this may shed a more positive light on them.

I'm a fan or rats and mice, or "ratties" as we call them in the exotic pet world, with that can vouch for them being sweet and playful as opposed to nasty. As well as with other animals, shedding the theory that animals are just simply run on instinct and have no emotion.

Ratties at Playtime

Second half of the video two rats in the tube are playfully sharing(or could be stealing).

reply to post by ltinycdancerg

Rats have had a bad reputation since at least the days of the bubonic plague (the 1600's) but it is quite unfounded. They are very social and extremely intelligent, I used to have a pet rat that a friend wanted me to look after. The only downside was that they do like to chew holes in clothes sometimes but ah well, it was still fun.

Now, why do we use them in nasty (unlike your video) animal testing again?