Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice
Published on: November 22, 2024
Does a rat release a soaked conspecific due to empathy?
Lindsay P Schwartz1, Alan Silberberg2, Anna H Casey2
1Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC, USA. ls9781a@student.american.edu.
Abstract:
In Experiment 1, rats choosing in an E maze preferred to release a rat standing in a pool of water to dry ground over a rat already standing on dry ground. Five additional experiments showed that the choosing rat's preference for releasing the wet rat was maintained by two separable outcomes: (1) the social contact offered by the released rat and (2) the reinforcing value of proximity to a pool of water. These results call into question Sato et al.'s (Anim Cogn 18:1039-1047, 2015) claim to have demonstrated that a rat's releasing of a wet rat to dry ground is empathically motivated.
Related Concept Videos
Nonconscious Mimicry
Empathy
Altruism
Tonicity in Animals
Tonicity in Animals
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...

