Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats

Prior research has found that one rat will release a second rat from a restraint in the presence of food, thereby allowing that second rat access to food. Such behavior, clearly beneficial to the second rat and costly to the first, has been interpreted as altruistic. Because clear demonstrations of...

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Main Authors: Haoran Wan, Cyrus Kirkman, Greg Jensen, Timothy D. Hackenberg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
rat
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.696025/full
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spelling doaj-ae25c5857c0741328d430a3ec0bb68ac2021-06-22T05:50:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-06-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.696025696025Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in RatsHaoran Wan0Cyrus Kirkman1Greg Jensen2Greg Jensen3Timothy D. Hackenberg4Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR, United StatesDepartment of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, United StatesZuckerman Institute, New York, NY, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR, United StatesPrior research has found that one rat will release a second rat from a restraint in the presence of food, thereby allowing that second rat access to food. Such behavior, clearly beneficial to the second rat and costly to the first, has been interpreted as altruistic. Because clear demonstrations of altruism in rats are rare, such findings deserve a careful look. The present study aimed to replicate this finding, but with more systematic methods to examine whether, and under what conditions, a rat might share food with its cagemate partner. Rats were given repeated choices between high-valued food (sucrose pellets) and 30-s social access to a familiar rat, with the (a) food size (number of food pellets per response), and (b) food motivation (extra-session access to food) varied across conditions. Rats responded consistently for both food and social interaction, but at different levels and with different sensitivity to the food-access manipulations. Food production and consumption was high when food motivation was also high (food restriction) but substantially lower when food motivation was low (unlimited food access). Social release occurred at moderate levels, unaffected by the food-based manipulations. When food was abundant and food motivation low, the rats chose food and social options about equally often, but sharing (food left unconsumed prior to social release) occurred at low levels across sessions and conditions. Even under conditions of low food motivation, sharing occurred on only 1% of the sharing opportunities. The results are therefore inconsistent with claims in the literature that rats are altruistically motivated to share food with other rats.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.696025/fullsocial rewardfood rewardpreferencealtruism and prosocial behaviorlever pressrat
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Haoran Wan
Cyrus Kirkman
Greg Jensen
Greg Jensen
Timothy D. Hackenberg
spellingShingle Haoran Wan
Cyrus Kirkman
Greg Jensen
Greg Jensen
Timothy D. Hackenberg
Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
Frontiers in Psychology
social reward
food reward
preference
altruism and prosocial behavior
lever press
rat
author_facet Haoran Wan
Cyrus Kirkman
Greg Jensen
Greg Jensen
Timothy D. Hackenberg
author_sort Haoran Wan
title Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
title_short Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
title_full Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
title_fullStr Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
title_full_unstemmed Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats
title_sort failure to find altruistic food sharing in rats
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Psychology
issn 1664-1078
publishDate 2021-06-01
description Prior research has found that one rat will release a second rat from a restraint in the presence of food, thereby allowing that second rat access to food. Such behavior, clearly beneficial to the second rat and costly to the first, has been interpreted as altruistic. Because clear demonstrations of altruism in rats are rare, such findings deserve a careful look. The present study aimed to replicate this finding, but with more systematic methods to examine whether, and under what conditions, a rat might share food with its cagemate partner. Rats were given repeated choices between high-valued food (sucrose pellets) and 30-s social access to a familiar rat, with the (a) food size (number of food pellets per response), and (b) food motivation (extra-session access to food) varied across conditions. Rats responded consistently for both food and social interaction, but at different levels and with different sensitivity to the food-access manipulations. Food production and consumption was high when food motivation was also high (food restriction) but substantially lower when food motivation was low (unlimited food access). Social release occurred at moderate levels, unaffected by the food-based manipulations. When food was abundant and food motivation low, the rats chose food and social options about equally often, but sharing (food left unconsumed prior to social release) occurred at low levels across sessions and conditions. Even under conditions of low food motivation, sharing occurred on only 1% of the sharing opportunities. The results are therefore inconsistent with claims in the literature that rats are altruistically motivated to share food with other rats.
topic social reward
food reward
preference
altruism and prosocial behavior
lever press
rat
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.696025/full
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