Affiliation and aggression in rats

Abstract

The relationship between affiliation and aggression was examined in two experiments. In the first study, each of 12 male albino rats was allowed to choose in a T-maze between tw:o alternatives. One alternative housed a more aggressive target male and the other housed a less aggressIve target male. The subjects preferred the less aggressive target animal. A second investigation allowed each of 36 male albino rats to choose between a target animal and an empty compartment. The results were that all the subjects preferred to affiliate with the target animal. However, as the level of aggressiveness by the target animal increased, the level of greg~riousness decreased. The data suggest that an important determinant of affiliation is the behavior, and specifically the aggressiveness, of the target animal.

Cooperative coordination as a social behavior

“…But the results by themselves do not guarantee that coordinated shuttling develops because rewards are dependent on cooperating--in other words, satisfying the cooperative D-~N contingency. Rats also have a spontaneous tendency to approach each other (e.g., Latan6, Cappell, and Joy 1970;Taylor 1976Taylor , 1977. This might suffice for generating coordinated shuttling even if pairs are not re- warded specifically for coordinating, but rewarded only for individual shuttles in each other's presence.…”

“Laughing” rats and the evolutionary antecedents of human joy?

“…Submissive animals, given a choice to return to their home cage in a T-maze or to the home of the dominant animals, exhibited surprisingly many choices for the latter [94], while of course dominant animals would be expected to be eager for more social contact. Thus, aggressive situations still contain abundant positive social motivational features, which may help explain the modest levels of 50-kHz vocalizations evident in resident -intruder paradigms.…”

Cooperative social coordination and aggression: Sex and strain differences in the effects of housing on gonadectomized rats with hormone replacement

“…A model of cooperative behavior offers one way to study aggression within the social context of a stable behavioral relationship. The use of rats reflects the recognition that it is a social species capable of forming colonies organized on the basis of hierarchy [Adams and Boice, 1983;Barnett, 19751 and exhibiting affiliation in the laboratory [Latane et al, 1970;Taylor, 1976Taylor, , 1977Wills et al, 19831. The prediction was that cooperation would develop and stabilize when aggression did not impede mobility and proximity.…”