It seems that some of the animal have emotions analogous to what we call compassion. The following experiment was designed to discover whether the pain suffered by another animal would deter the rhesus monkeys from securing food. One rhesus (called the "operator" or "O") was placed in one side of a box and taught to secure food by pulling either of two chains. Food was available only when a light signal was given. Another monkey (called the "stimulus animal" or "SA") was put in the other side of the box. The box was divided by a one-way mirror so that the O could see the SA but not the other way around. The floor on the SA's side was covered by a grid attached to a shock source so that whenever the O pulled one of the chains to secure food the SA received a severe electrical shock. The researchers observed that rhesus monkeys would "consistently suffer hunger rather than secure food at the expense of electroshock to a conspecific". The experimenters discovered no correlations between the O's reluctance to pull the shock chain and the monkeys' sex, size, or having more or less dominant position in a group. They found, however, the following:animals that had previously been SA's were significantly more reluctant to pull the shock chain when they were made Os than animals who had not been SA's themselves. "This behavior of the shocked O's was not attributable to an acquired aversion to the apparatus itself since they showed no decrement in chain-manipulation during the adaptation sessions immediately following their shock". The explanation suggested by the hypothesis of compassion is that these animals were more reluctant to pull the chain because, having suffered the shocks themselves, they had a more vivid comprehension of what it was like, and so a greater reluctance to see someone else in the same position. [The experiment is described by James Rachels, "Do Animals Have a Right to Liberty?", in T. Regan and P. Singer (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1976), 215-17. The original reports are published by S. Wechkin, J.H. Masserman, and W. Terris, Jr., "Shock to a Conspecific as an Aversive Stimulus", Psychonomic Science Vol. 1 (1964), 47-48; and "'Altruistic' Behavior in Rhesus Monkeys", The American Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 121 (1964), 584-85. Because each article is less than two pages long, Rachels does not give page number for the quotations. I follow this practice.]One of the monkeys refrained from pulling either chain for 12 days, and another for 5 days, after witnessing shock to the SA. During this time they had no food at all and must have suffered really terrible hunger.
The rhesus emotions led to behavior which could not have been caused, and explained, by any prior moral upbringing. The monkeys had no such upbringing; most likely, they did not even have any moral concepts. Similarly, some human feelings can be prior to any socialization or moral upbringing. And, in a way, they may constrain what such socialization may achieve.
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