10.5061/DRYAD.H18931ZJD
Gerber, Nina
0000-0002-7142-1318
University of Göttingen
Schweinfurth, Manon
0000-0003-2066-7892
University of St Andrews
Taborsky, Michael
0000-0002-1357-4316
University of Bern
The smell of cooperation: rats increase helpful behaviour when receiving
odour cues of a conspecific performing a cooperative task
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
2020-11-24T00:00:00Z
2020-11-24T00:00:00Z
en
24772 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Reciprocity can explain cooperative behaviour among non-kin, where
individuals help others depending on their experience in previous
interactions. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) cooperate reciprocally
according to direct and generalized reciprocity. In a sequence of four
consecutive experiments, we show that odour cues from a cooperating
conspecific are sufficient to induce altruistic help of rats in a
food-exchange task. When rats were enabled to help a non-cooperative
partner while receiving olfactory information from a rat helping a
conspecific in a different room, they helped their non-cooperative partner
as if it was a cooperative one. We further show that the cues inducing
altruistic behaviour are released during the act of cooperation and do not
depend on the identity of the cue provider. Remarkably, olfactory cues
seem to be more important for cooperation decisions than experiencing a
cooperative act per se. This suggests that rats signal their cooperation
propensity to social partners, which increases their chances to receive
help in return.
To test for reciprocal cooperation, we used wild-type Norway rats that
were capable of producing food for a partner . In addition, we manipulated
the availability of olfactory information by controlling the airflow
between social partners. We performed a series of four consecutive
experiments to stepwise clarify which information rats consider when
deciding to provision a social partner with food