People are like rats in a cage --
from -- Escaping the Laboratory:
The Rodent Experiments
of John B. Calhoun
& Their Cultural Influence
http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/pd ... madams.pdf
----And the change was permanent ----
Employed in the Laboratory of Psychology of the National
Institute of Mental Health from 1954, Calhoun repeated the experiment
in specially constructed “rodent universes” – room-sized pens which
could be viewed from the attic above via windows cut through the
ceiling. Using a variety of strains of rats and mice, he once more
provided his populations with food, bedding, and shelter. With no
predators and with exposure to disease kept at a minimum, Calhoun
described his experimental universes as “rat utopia,” “mouse paradise.”
With all their visible needs met, the animals bred rapidly. The only
restriction Calhoun imposed on his population was of space – and as
the population grew, this became increasingly problematic. As the pens
heaved with animals, one of his assistants described rodent “utopia” as
having become “hell” (Marsden 1972).
Dominant males became aggressive, some moving in groups,
attacking females and the young. Mating behaviors were disrupted.
Some became exclusively homosexual. Others became pansexual and
hypersexual, attempting to mount any rat they encountered. Mothers
neglected their infants, first failing to construct proper nests, and then
carelessly abandoning and even attacking their pups. In certain sections
of the pens, infant mortality rose as high as 96%, the dead cannibalized
by adults. Subordinate animals withdrew psychologically, surviving in a
physical sense but at an immense psychological cost. They were the
majority in the late phases of growth, existing as a vacant, huddled
mass in the centre of the pens. Unable to breed, the population
plummeted and did not recover. The crowded rodents had lost the
ability to co-exist harmoniously, even after the population numbers once
again fell to low levels. At a certain density, they had ceased to act like
rats and mice, and the change was permanent.
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and people are different?
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John, sometimes I think you look at humanity like rats in a cage -- not that I would disagree with that objective position -- or as Spock of "Star Trek" would say "fascinating".