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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?
by finnw 15y ago
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?
- tzs 15y agoMaybe. On the other hand, the trapped rat might be safer as a predator might not be able to get into the cage. There are plenty of possible ways things could work out. For instance, if the rats have figured out that the humans can identify individual rats and treat them different (which they might figure out if the humans have done several kinds of experiments on the same rats because each experiment would have a control group that gets different treatment), the rat outside might think "the humans but this other rat in the cage--if I let it out, then when they come back they'll be distracted putting it back in, and might leave me alone". Or maybe it would be good to let the other rat out so that if danger arrives, you can go hide in the cage. Or it could make sense to have the other rat out so that the two of you can more quickly explore the environment and find a way to escape. The main point is that you can't really attribute letting the other rat out to empathy, as there are many other possible explanations for why a rat might let another rat out.
- rcthompson 15y agoOnly if the free rat plans to stick around the trapped one. If the free rat wants to go anywhere and still have safety in numbers, he has to free the trapped one.