Interpreting mouse’s intention from analysis of prosocial behavior

2025/05/28 by Hiroyuki Arakawa · 1 voice
Psychology · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Human-Animal Interaction Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41684-025-01561-0

openalex publication_date 2025/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13

Abstract

Recent research provides evidence of potential altruistic social behavior in mice. Laboratory mice appear to attempt to rescue an unconscious cage mate by investigating its mouth and pulling out its tongue. The finding indicates the difficulty of anthropomorphic interpretation of such impressive prosocial ability in mice.

Citations

• Reviving-like prosocial behavior in response to unconscious or dead conspecifics in rodents

Discussions

• On the difficulty of inferring motivation from behaviour and the risks of inferential biases, e.g., anthropomorphism. Arakawa, H. (2025). Interpreting mouse’s intention from analysis of prosocial beha [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]