Emotional contagion and prosocial behavior in rodents

Empathy is critical to adjusting our behavior to the state of others. The past decade dramatically deepened our understanding of the biological origin of this capacity. We now understand that rodents robustly show emotional conta-gion for the distress of others via neural structures homologous to those involved in human empathy. Their propensity to approach others in distress strengthens this effect. Although rodents can also learn to favor behaviors that benefit others via structures overlapping with those of emotional contagion, they do so less reliably and more selectively. Together, this suggests evolution selected mecha-nisms for emotional contagion to prepare animals for dangers by using others as sentinels. Such shared emotions additionally can, under certain circumstances, promote prosocial behavior.

Automated summary

Empathy is crucial for adjusting our behavior to others, and recent research has deepened our understanding of its biological basis. We now know that rodents, through neural structures similar to those involved in human empathy, can strongly experience emotional contagion for others' distress. Their natural inclination to approach distressed animals enhances this effect. While rodents can also learn to favor behaviors that benefit others, these actions are less reliable and more selective. This suggests that evolution has selected mechanisms for emotional contagion to prepare animals for dangers and promote prosocial behavior under certain circumstances.