Week 9: Lending an Anonymous paw - Animal Altruism

The article focuses on the rat altruism. Altruism describes a range of behaviors of performed by animals that might be to their own disadvantage but benefits these others. The article looks at rodents who sisters and other unrelated rats. The article explains that the study by Swiss researchers that looked at female rates that were littermates and were sisters(Rat-Kindness Takes Hold, 2007 p.1). These related rats were rained to be both recipients and providers of food, and they were put in a cage which separated them from each other using wire mesh. In the cage there was a lever which they would pull to deliver food to their sister but not for them( Rat-Kindness Takes Hold, 2007 p.1). The article explains that the provider sister at the moment pulled much more frequently when the other rat was present in the cage than when they were not. The article also explains the same phenomenon between unrelated rats, rats that were recently assisted with their partners and those that had not been helped(Rat-Kindness Takes Hold, 2007 p.1) The study explained that the unfamiliar and unrelated exemplified generalized reciprocity. Generalized reciprocity which explains that individuals treat others in the same way they were treated by others in the past. This article is important because it asserts the general reciprocity in human beings, and negates the ideology held in rats that they are inherently selfish.