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Råttor är sommarens grej. Jag tänker på "Ratatouille". Men också på de schweiziska forskare som idag publicerat sina resultat i artikeln "Generalized Reciprocity in Rats". Tydligen visar också råttor upp altruistiskt beteende på ett sätt som man bara sett högre stående däggdjur göra tidigare. "Generell reciprocitet" innebär tydligen att personer/råttor som får ta emot goda gärningar också är mer benägna att hjälpa andra (främlingar).

Hur såna här till synes överflödiga goda gärningar är evolutionsbiologiskt begripliga har man inte riktigt kommit fram till, verkar det som. När man läser den här sammanfattningen kan man nästan tro att råttjävlarna har läst Nya Testamentet:

Rather than remembering whether individual rats have acted generously toward them in the past, which requires a heavy cognitive load that rats arguably lack the capacity for, rats may instead formulate a general 'rule' about the generosity exhibited by the community of rats. Rats learn that other rats behave generously rather than selfishly with a certain probability, infer that they thus stand a chance to benefit from living in this community, and adhere to these community rules themselves, acting generously rather than selfishly in order to maintain a secure place in the community.

The lesson learned? Perhaps it pays off to be act generously toward others, for what seems like altruistic behavior is actually a manifestation of expected reciprocity. Rather than the immediately beneficial "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine", rats seem to have stumbled to a slightly more subtle concept: "I'll scratch your back, because in a community of backscratchers, I'll stand a better chance of future backscratchs from those I didn't even directly help." Which is, ironically enough, still a fundamentally selfish perspective.