A recent study involving highly social mice hypothesizes that the ability to empathize may be rooted deeply in genetics. In testing, researchers observed cross sections of mice behavior when a mouse's distressed squeak was played. The more social mice responded to the distress calls, while a different genetic strain of mice did not.

U.S. Researchers, monitoring children's brains, observed that when these children were shown animated examples of something painful happening to a character, brain activity in the regions of the brain known to house empathy were active. The brain circuits that were involved were the same ones that are utilized when a person experiences pain first hand.