Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
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Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
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Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#2Alternate title: Study finds humans selectively block their empathy towards some fellow mammals
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#3That doesn't necessarily show empathy. In a dangerous environment, for instance, it can be better to have others around to lessen your individual risk. It could be freeing the trapped rat in the hope that when the big nasty humans come back they will pick the other rat.
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#4The easier way to determine if humans are the only species who have empathy...
Talk to any dog owner.
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#5My question is: why don't we show more empathy towards animals? The experimentations and vivisections, urban sprawl and deforestation, the abandonment of pets when they become inconvenient - we as humans don't consider the cruelty of our actions.
We figure as long as it can be profited from or paved over, it's justifiable. It's not.
One day mankind will grieve because of the suffering we have caused animals. But by then it will be too late.
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#6That doesn't necessarily show empathy. In a dangerous environment, for instance, it can be better to have others around to lessen your individual risk. It could be freeing the trapped rat in the hope that when the big nasty humans come back they will pick the other rat.
Wouldn't your individual risk be lessened by leaving the other rat trapped, so that it is easy prey and more likely to get picked?
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#7The easier way to determine if humans are the only species who have empathy... Talk to any dog owner.
Are you saying cats have no empathy?
:)
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#8The easier way to determine if humans are the only species who have empathy... Talk to any dog owner.
All that will tell you is that humans will anthropomorphize anything.
I would agree with the dog owner, but then you sometimes hear owners of non-social animals (e.g. snakes, octopuses) claiming their pets have empathy. A few people even claim their cars have empathy.
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#9I set a mouse trap yesterday morning and last night went to check on it. The mouse that was caught in it was pretty much gone from being eaten by another mouse (which I'm guessing is the one that I caught this morning). I guess nobody told them about this study.
Re: Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free
#10My question is: why don't we show more empathy towards animals? The experimentations and vivisections, urban sprawl and deforestation, the abandonment of pets when they become inconvenient - we as humans don't consider the cruelty of our actions. We figure as long as it can be profited from or paved over, it's justifiable. It's not. One day mankind will grieve because of the suffering we have caused animals. But by t…
The same cognitive dissonance arises when talking about collateral damage of capitalism: "well, that sucks, but capitalism is good, so it's not responsible for those effects."
Empathy is the antithesis of power. That's why it will always be the exception in humans.