CompassionateRats {Lock5Data}

Compassionate Rats

Description

Would a rat attempt to free a trapped rat?

Format

A dataset with 30 observations on the following 2 variables.

Sex	Sex of the rat: coded as F or M
Empathy	Freed the trapped rat? no or yes

Details

In a recent study, some rats showed compassion by freeing another trapped rat, even when chocolate served as a distraction and even when the rats would then have to share the chocolate with their freed companion.

Source

Bartal I.B., Decety J., and Mason P., "Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats," Science, 2011; 224(6061):1427-1430.