The results of the choice test revealed that in the majority of the test trials, the rats that learned to open the door by helping opened the door to their cagemate earlier than the door to the reward of chocolate cereal. The proportion that first opened the door to the cagemate among rats taught by helping was significantly higher than expected. For the rats that learned to open the door through a food reward, the same order of door opening was observed in half of the test trials. This proportion was not significantly different from chance; however, it was statistically greater than the proportion expected when calculated from the proportion of helping-trained rats opening the food door. The latencies of the first door opening were not different between the two groups. These results suggest that for all rats (those that learned door opening to obtain food rewards as well as those that learned it to help the cagemate), helping a distressed cagemate has a higher value than obtaining a food reward. This is consistent with the previous study that showed the rats were as quick to open the door of a restrainer containing their cagemate as they were in opening a door to an area containing chocolate chips (Bartal et al.2011). The present study added information about the order of the choice, i.e., the rats shaped by helping chose the door to the cagemate first in most cases. In addition, the same order was observed in half of the rats whose learning was shaped by food and that had no experience of helping.