An Empirical Study on The Motivation of Helping Behavior in Rodents

Han Shu; Chen Yaqin; Zheng Benhuiyuan; Wang Yaxin; Yin Bin

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230502

PDF(1127 KB)

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (5) : 1036-1045. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230502

General Psychology，Experimental Psychology & Ergonomics

An Empirical Study on The Motivation of Helping Behavior in Rodents

Han Shu, Chen Yaqin, Zheng Benhuiyuan, Wang Yaxin, Yin Bin

Author information +

History +

Abstract

Helping behavior is universal across species. In recent years, it has become a new trend for scholars to use rodent models to explore the motivation of helping behavior. Empathy, relieving personal distress, and desire for social contacts are plausible motivations for rodents to help, but debates exist about whether helping behavior is inspired by one of the motives or the combination of them. In this study, to explore the motivation of helping behavior in rodents, the two-chamber experimental apparatus designed by Carvalheiro et al. (2019) was improved by adding an intermediate chamber to manipulate the possibility of the free rat's social contact with the entrapped rats after implementing the helping behavior as well as the possibility of the free rat's escaping from the helping context to relieve its personal distress in the process of helping decision-making. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (N=108) were used as subjects in three experiments. The latency to open the door for helping the entrapped rat escape was recorded as the main outcome variable.
Experiment 1 confirmed the existence of helping behavior and the impact of social contact on helping behavior under the condition of being unable to escape from the helping context, using a 2 (possibility of social contact: yes/no) by 4 (restrainer condition: empty restrainer, familiar rat, unfamiliar rat, toy rat) mixed experimental design. The results showed that when social contact was allowed, the free rat maintained a consistently short latency to help, but when social contact was not allowed, the free rat's latency to help became longer and longer as sessions went on until the free rat no longer helped at all within the 15min session limit.
Experiment 2 explored the impact of social contact on helping behavior under the condition of being able to escape from the helping context, using the same experimental design as Study 1 but keeping the door between the middle chamber and the dark chamber open. The results showed that the existence of the dark chamber was beneficial for the non-social contact group to help continuously, but extended the latency to help in the social contact group, namely, relieving personal distress contributes to the emergence of helping behavior, but the emergence of helping behavior ultimately depends on whether social contact could be made.
Experiment 3 explored the influence of previous social contact experience and current social contact possibility on helping behavior under the condition of the free rats' having been trapped before, using a 2(possibility of social contact: yes/no) by 2 (previous social contact experience: yes/no) by 4 (restrainer conditions: empty restrainer, familiar rat, unfamiliar rat, toy rat) mixed experimental design. The results showed that previous experiences of being trapped did not affect helping behavior, but previous experiences of social contact were conducive to maintaining continuous helping behavior in the non-social contact group.
In summary, the following conclusions were obtained through this study: (1) desires for social contact and the pursuit of interesting environment are important motivations for rodents' helping behavior, regardless of the possibility to escape from the helping context. (2) Relieving personal distress can help sustain helping behavior, but the emergence of helping behavior ultimately depends on whether social contact can be carried out after helping. (3) Previous experiences of social contact rather than the experiences of having been trapped contribute to the occurrence of helping behavior. (4) Empathy may not be the main reason to maintain helping behavior but rather can be used to describe the process of helping behavior.
This study extends the comparative research on the motivation of helping behavior and provides some hints for the psychological development and educational practices in humans.

Key words

rodents / helping behavior / motivation / social contact / personal distress / empathy

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

Han Shu, Chen Yaqin, Zheng Benhuiyuan, Wang Yaxin, Yin Bin. An Empirical Study on The Motivation of Helping Behavior in Rodents[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(5): 1036-1045 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230502

References

[1] 黄翯青, 苏彦捷. (2012). 共情的毕生发展: 一个双过程的视角. 心理发展与教育, 28(4), 434-441.
[2] 王启忱, 刘赞, 苏彦捷. (2021). 共情的毕生发展及其神经基础. 中国科学: 生命科学, 51(6), 717-729.
[3] 魏祺, 苏彦捷. (2019). 学龄前儿童中的共情及其不同成分. 心理技术与应用, 7(9), 523-535.
[4] Bailey K. R.,& Crawley, J. N. (2009). Chapter 5: Anxiety-related behaviors in mice In J J Buccafusco (Ed), Methods of behavior analysis in neuroscience CRC Press Anxiety-related behaviors in mice. In J. J. Buccafusco (Ed.), Methods of behavior analysis in neuroscience. CRC Press.
[5] Bamberger P. A., Geller D., & Doveh E. (2017). Assisting upon entry: Helping type and approach as moderators of how role conflict affects newcomer resource drain. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(12), 1719-1732.
[6] Bartal I. B. A., Breton J. M., Sheng H. J., Long K. L., Chen S., Halliday A., & Kaufer D. (2021). Neural correlates of ingroup bias for prosociality in rats. eLife, 10, Article e65582.
[7] Bartal I. B. A., Decety J., & Mason P. (2011). Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats. Science, 334(6061), 1427-1430.
[8] Bartal I. B. A., Rodgers D. A., Sarria M. S. B., Decety J., & Mason P. (2014). Pro-social behavior in rats is modulated by social experience. eLife, 3, Article e01385.
[9] Bartal I. B. A., Shan H. Z., Molasky N. M. R., Murray T. M., Williams J. Z., Decety J., & Mason P. (2016). Anxiolytic treatment impairs helping behavior in rats. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 850.
[10] Bibb L., James M., Virginia J., Bernard L., & Howard C. (1972). Stimulus determinants of social attraction in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 79(1), 13-21.
[11] Brown R. E.(1979). Mammalian social odors: A critical review. In J. S. Rosenblatt, R. A. Hinde, C. Beer, & M. C. Busnel (Eds.), Advances in the study of behavior (pp. 103-162).Academic Press.
[12] Burkett J. P., Andari E., Johnson Z. V., Curry D. C., de Waal, F. B. M., & Young L. J. (2016). Oxytocin-dependent consolation behavior in rodents. Science, 351(6271), 375-378.
[13] Campos A. C., Ferreira F. R., Guimarães F. S., & Lemos J. I. (2010). Facilitation of endocannabinoid effects in the ventral hippocampus modulates anxiety-like behaviors depending on previous stress experience. Neuroscience, 167(2), 238-246.
[14] Carvalheiro J., Seara-Cardoso A., Mesquita A. R., de Sousa L., Oliveira P., Summavielle T., & Magalhães A. (2019). Helping behavior in rats (Rattus norvegicus) when an escape alternative is present. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 133(4), 452-462.
[15] Clay, Z., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2013a). Bonobos respond to distress in others: Consolation across the age spectrum. PLoS ONE, 8(1), e55206.
[16] Clay, Z., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2013b). Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(45), 18121-18126.
[17] Conti G., Hansman C., Heckman J. J., Novak M. F. X., Ruggiero A., & Suomi S. J. (2012). Primate evidence on the late health effects of early-life adversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(23), 8866-8871.
[18] Cox, S. S., & Reichel, C. M. (2020). Rats display empathic behavior independent of the opportunity for social interaction. Neuropsychopharmacology, 45(7), 1097-1104.
[19] de Waal, F. B. M. (2007). With a little help from a friend. PLoS Biology, 5(7), Article e190.
[20] de Waal, F. B. M., & Preston, S. D. (2017). Mammalian empathy: Behavioural manifestations and neural basis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 498-509.
[21] Galef, B. G., & Wigmore, S. W. (1983). Transfer of information concerning distant foods: A laboratory investigation of the ‘information-centre’ hypothesis. Animal Behaviour, 31(3), 748-758.
[22] Gerber N., Schweinfurth M. K., & Taborsky M. (2020). The smell of cooperation: Rats increase helpful behaviour when receiving odour cues of a conspecific performing a cooperative task. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1939), Article 20202327.
[23] Giner Torréns M., Dreizler K., & Kärtner J. (2021). Insight into toddlers’ motivation to help: From social participants to prosocial contributors. Infant Behavior and Development, 64, Article 101603.
[24] Gonzalez-Liencres C., Juckel G., Tas C., Friebe A., & Brüne M. (2014). Emotional contagion in mice: The role of familiarity. Behavioural Brain Research, 263, 16-21.
[25] Graham, K. L., & Burghardt, G. M. (2010). Current perspectives on the biological study of play: Signs of progress. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 85(4), 393-418.
[26] Hachiga Y., Schwartz L. P., Silberberg A., Kearns D. N., Gomez M., &Slotnick B. (2018). Does a rat free a trapped rat due to empathy or for sociality? Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110(2), 267-274.
[27] Harlow, H. F., & Zimmermann, R. R. (1959). Affectional responses in the infant monkey. Science, 130(3373), 421-432.
[28] Havlik J. L., Vieira Sugano Y. Y., Jacobi M. C., Kukreja R. R., Jacobi J. H. C., & Mason P. (2020). The bystander effect in rats. Science Advances, 6(28), Article eabb4205.
[29] Hepach R., Vaish A., & Tomasello M. (2012). Young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped. Psychological Science, 23(9), 967-972.
[30] Hernandez-Lallement J., Attah A. T., Soyman E., Pinhal C. M., Gazzola V., & Keysers C. (2020). Harm to others acts as a negative reinforcer in rats. Current Biology, 30(6), 949-961.e7.
[31] Heslin, K. A., & Brown, M. F. (2021). No preference for prosocial helping behavior in rats with concurrent social interaction opportunities. Learning and Behavior, 49(4), 397-404.
[32] Hiura L. C., Tan L., & Hackenberg T. D. (2018). To free, or not to free: Social reinforcement effects in the social release paradigm with rats. Behavioural Processes, 152, 37-46.
[33] Horner V., Carter J. D., Suchak M., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2011). Spontaneous prosocial choice by chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(33), 13847-13851.
[34] Kandis S., Ates M., Kizildag S., Camsari G. B., Yuce Z., Guvendi G., & Uysal N. (2018). Acetaminophen (paracetamol) affects empathy-like behavior in rats: Dose-response relationship. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 175, 146-151.
[35] Keysers C., Knapska E., Moita M. A., & Gazzola V. (2022). Emotional contagion and prosocial behavior in rodents. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(8), 688-706.
[36] Knapska E., Mikosz M., Werka T., & Maren S. (2010). Social modulation of learning in rats. Learning and Memory, 17(1), 35-42.
[37] Koski, S. E., & Sterck, E. H. M. (2010). Empathic chimpanzees: A proposal of the levels of emotional and cognitive processing in chimpanzee empathy. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7(1), 38-66.
[38] Langford D. J., Crager S. E., Shehzad Z., Smith S. B., Sotocinal S. G., Levenstadt J. S., & Mogil J. S. (2006). Social modulation of pain as evidence for empathy in mice. Science, 312(5782), 1967-1970.
[39] Lavery, J. J., & Foley, P. J. (1963). Altruism or arousal in the rat? Science, 140(3563), 172-173.
[40] Lu Y. F., Ren B., Ling B. F., Zhang J., Xu C., & Li Z. (2018). Social interaction with a cagemate in pain increases allogrooming and induces pain hypersensitivity in the observer rats. Neuroscience Letters, 662, 385-388.
[41] Márquez C., Rennie S. M., Costa D. F., & Moita M. A. (2015). Prosocial choice in rats depends on food-seeking behavior displayed by recipients. Current Biology, 25(13), 1736-1745.
[42] Mason, P. (2016). Helping another in distress: Lessons from rats. In T. K. Shackelford & R. D. Hansen (Eds.), The evolution of morality (pp. 177-194).Springer.
[43] Mason, P. (2021). Lessons from helping behavior in rats. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 68, 52-56.
[44] Meyza K. Z., Bartal I. B. A., Monfils M. H., Panksepp J. B., & Knapska E. (2017). The roots of empathy: Through the lens of rodent models. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 76, 216-234.
[45] Michael, J., & Székely, M. (2019). Goal slippage: A mechanism for spontaneous instrumental helping in infancy? Topoi, 38(1), 173-183.
[46] Mogil, J. S. (2012). The surprising empathic abilities of rodents. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(3), 143-144.
[47] Pellis, S. M., & Pellis, V. C. (1997). The prejuvenile onset of play fighting in laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus). Developmental Psychobiology, 31(3), 193-205.
[48] Pitman D. L., Ottenweller J. E., & Natelson B. H. (1988). Plasma corticosterone levels during repeated presentation of two intensities of restraint stress: Chronic stress and habituation. Physiology and Behavior, 43(1), 47-55.
[49] Rice, G. E., & Gainer, P. (1962). “Altruism” in the albino rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 123-125.
[50] Rutte, C., & Taborsky, M. (2007). Generalized reciprocity in rats. PLoS Biology, 5(7), Article e196.
[51] Ryan, R. M., & Connell, J. P. (1989). Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(5), 749-761.
[52] Sato N., Tan L., Tate K., & Okada M. (2015). Rats demonstrate helping behavior toward a soaked conspecific. Animal Cognition, 18(5), 1039-1047.
[53] Schmelz M., Grueneisen S., Kabalak A., Jost J., & Tomasello M. (2017). Chimpanzees return favors at a personal cost. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(28), 7462-7467.
[54] Schneeberger K., Röder G., & Taborsky M. (2020). The smell of hunger: Norway rats provision social partners based on odour cues of need. PLoS Biology, 18(3), Article e3000628.
[55] Schwartz L. P., Silberberg A., Casey A. H., Kearns D. N., & Slotnick B. (2017). Does a rat release a soaked conspecific due to empathy? Animal Cognition, 20(2), 299-308.
[56] Silberberg A., Allouch C., Sandfort S., Kearns D., Karpel H., & Slotnick B. (2014). Desire for social contact, not empathy, may explain “rescue” behavior in rats. Animal Cognition, 17(3), 609-618.
[57] Snippe E., Jeronimus B. F., aan het Rot M., Bos E. H., de Jonge P., & Wichers M. (2018). The reciprocity of prosocial behavior and positive affect in daily life. Journal of Personality, 86(2), 139-146.
[58] Stukas A. A.,& Clary, E. G. (2012). Altruism and helping behavior. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (pp. 100-107).Academic Press.
[59] Templer V. L., Wise T. B., Dayaw K. I. T., & Dayaw, J. N. T. (2018). Nonsocially housed rats (Ratus norvegicus) seek social interactions and social novelty more than socially housed counterparts. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 132(3), 240-252.
[60] Tokuyama N., Toda K., Poiret M. L., Iyokango B., Bakaa B., & Ishizuka S. (2021). Two wild female bonobos adopted infants from a different social group at Wamba. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 4967-4967.
[61] Ueno H., Suemitsu S., Murakami S., Kitamura N., Wani K., Matsumoto Y., & Ishihara T. (2019). Helping-like behaviour in mice towards conspecifics constrained inside tubes. Scientific Reports, 9, Article 5817.
[62] Ueno H., Suemitsu S., Murakami S., Kitamura N., Wani K., Okamoto M., & Ishihara T. (2018). Empathic behavior according to the state of others in mice. Brain and Behavior, 8(7), Article e00986.
[63] Vanderschuren L. J., Niesink R. J., & van Pee, J. M. (1997). The neurobiology of social play behavior in rats. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 21(3), 309-326.
[64] Zahn-Waxler C., Radke-Yarrow M., Wagner E., & Chapman M. (1992). Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology, 28(1), 126-136.