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Evidence Of Empathy In Animals Across Time, Jeffrey Stephen Gavel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Empathetic behaviors are characterized by a three-tiered hierarchical organization involving arousal, emotional contagion, and cognitive empathy. In the current study, we define each step in this hierarchy in order to build toward a paradigm that represents true cognitive empathy. We then examine the levels of empathy displayed by rats in previous paradigms and classify prior studies by level of arousal, emotional contagion, or cognitive empathy. Finally, we present two studies which examine the potential for empathetic display in rats.