Fancy rats are known to be friendly towards their owner and most often like to be held for a short period of time. They might prefer to run freely, but nonetheless they do enjoy being in contact with people and sometimes they enjoy being held.
Fancy rats are bred to be more friendlier
Fancy rats have been around for more than a hundred years. Fancy rats are bred from brown rat (Rattus Norvegicus). They tend be more friendlier, tend to eat more of variety of foods, tend to be more tolerant to noises etc. One of the attributes is that they are more people friendly.
Fancy rats that have been taken care of by good owner (who lets them free roam daily) are usually very friendly towards their owners. They even tend to look out for their owner while free roaming. Often times it is possible to teach your fancy rat to come to you when called. They also enjoy human company and do enjoy playing with people.
While they prefer to run around they usually enjoy a being held for a short amount of time. Some rat owners discover that their pet enjoys being close to them, either in their jumpers hood, in the sleeve, on their shoulder, etc.