Social influence on avoidance of dangerous stimuli by rats

Three experiments were conducted to determine whether a naive observer rat would avoid contact with a shock prod after watching a demonstrator rat con tact, be shocked by, and defensively bury the prod. We found that observer rats took longer to contact prods that had delivered a shock to and been bu ried by a demonstrator rat than to contact prods that had not delivered sho ck and had not been buried. However, observer rats contacted prods buried b y an unseen demonstrator rat or by an unseen experimenter with the same lat encies as those for prods they had seen deliver shock to and be buried by a demonstrator rat. In large enclosures, subjects took 1-2 h longer to conta ct buried prods than to contact unburied prods. We conclude that alteration of the physical environment by individuals receiving noxious stimulation c an significantly reduce the probability that conspecifics will contact the noxious stimulus. Observational learning per se, however, need not be invol ved.