15 Scientific Facts That Will Warm Your Cold, Dead, Heart

In one experiment, researchers showed that people who had recently listened to music they personally enjoyed were more likely to give money to others in a game-based simulation.

This is surprising, as many researchers had assumed that such behavior comes from the higher regions of the brain responsible for more complex cognitive functions.

The researchers wanted to prove that cats like music, but only if it was the ~right~ music. In their experiment, the right music was composed of sounds "within the frequency range and with similar tempos to those used in natural communication [between cats]."

Sometimes, it takes a walrus village.

Scientists have found that people who experience awe often have a reduction in immune system chemicals called "proinflammatory cytokines." Typically, large amounts of these chemicals imply poor health.

Evidence of some level of domestication goes back a really long time.

The experiment placed two rats in a cage, with one of the rats trapped in a smaller cage. Without any personal benefit, the other rat almost always rescued its fellow rat.

In one experiment, "rats quickly learned to liberate a soaked cagemate from [a] water area by opening the door to allow the trapped rat into a safe area."

A massive and long-term study looked at the social networks (IRL, not on the interwebz) of nearly 5,000 people for 20 years. The researchers found that people's happiness generally depended on the happiness of people in their close circles.