Rats, Robots, & Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a hallmark feature of prosocial behavior. Rats are known to show reciprocity towards other rats, aiding a known partner who has helped them and releasing a trapped cage mate from an enclosure, perhaps indicating a form of “empathy” towards their partners. It is unknown, however, whether these types of prosocial behaviors can be elicited towards an artificial agent.
Luisa Schuster's research tested whether rats could be induced to assist robot rats purely on the basis of reciprocity, and she'll be discussing the methodology and results of that research with us, along with its implications for humans and the meaning of empathy. Schuster is a research trainee at the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center at University of California San Diego. She studies social cognition in rats, specializing in empathy and prosocial behavior.