Consolation Behavior Should Be Observed Outside Of Species...

Consolation behavior entails as an increase in comforting contact in response to and directed toward a distressed individual by an uninvolved bystander, which produces a calming effect (Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992; De Waal Van Roomalen, 1979). Observations of consolation behavior in animals such as elephants have led to the conclusion that consolation behavior may require advanced cognitive capacities (Plotnik De Waal, 2014). However, the current study sought to investigate if consolation behavior could be observed outside of species with advanced cognition, such as in a rodent species. Such an observation would suggest that consolation behavior relies on less cognitive capacities and may be variably expressed in species due to their species-specific evolutionary context (Burkett et al., 2016). Researchers decided to use the rodent species of the prairie vole and the meadow vole in their study. This was done because the social traits of the prairie vole, i.e. being socially monogamous and biparental, often coevolve with other cooperative behaviors that increase direct or indirect fitness, including social buffering among colony members (Burkett et al., 2016). The meadow vole, in contrast, are promiscuous breeders with no formal social structure. Thus, Burkett and colleagues offered the following three hypotheses. Firstly, they hypothesized that if both voles are placed under reproducible laboratory conditions, then the prairie vole will show consolation behavior while the