What humanity and a community of mice have in common—lessons from the Universe 25 experiment
In the late 1960s, Calhoun, a scholar of animal behavior, conducted an experiment with rats to determine the effect of overpopulation on the behavior of individuals and the fate of the colony.
Four pairs of rats were placed in a 2.7-meter-by-2.7-meter enclosure with ideal temperature and an abundance of water, food, and nesting material. The question this experiment sought to answer was, “What happens when a population has everything it needs?”
Initially, the rat colony thrived in this “paradise,” with the population doubling every two months. However, as resources became scarce, the rats began to exhibit disturbing behavior: alpha males were extremely violent toward the others, even resorting to cannibalism; mothers neglected their young or even mistreated them; the more submissive males exhibited apathetic sexual behavior, focusing their energy on grooming and consuming food and drink, without interacting with others.
Unable to interact with their peers, the young rats became maladjusted, and the unmated females began to live in isolation like hermits. The rats’ lack of interest in reproducing led to a sharp decline in the birth rate and, eventually, to the extinction of the colony.
Although Calhoun intended to use the results of his experiment as a warning to humanity about the future that awaited it, the scientific community dismissed the analogies he drew due to methodological criticisms.
He warned his peers about the dangers of overpopulation and a lack of purpose resulting from the absence of a struggle for survival. What would happen in the future if the population were to crowd uncontrollably into large metropolises, with the loss of traditional social organization? What would be the psychological effect of the lack of challenges—protecting territory, seeking food, and securing resources—in a life marked by hedonism and abundance?
The main criticisms of the validity of his analogies with human behavior stemmed primarily from the poor distribution of space in the colony, the inbreeding of the population and the resulting genetic mutation, the moralistic narrative applied to the colony’s behavior, and the simplicity of the rats’ instinctive behavior when compared to that of humans.
However, when we read about the results of Universe 25, it’s very hard not to draw a parallel with the behavior of today’s society. Don’t you think?
What about the growing number of apathetic young people who see no need to leave their parents’ home and who spend their days locked in their rooms; the ever-increasing levels of senseless violence, without any need to use it to ensure survival; the participation of heterosexual women in the “boy-sober” movement, uninterested in romantic relationships; the obesity rate across all social classes; the high percentages of men who have never had partners—or even sexual relations—and who prefer digital girlfriends or robots, as we’ve seen in Japan?
This experiment with rats seems very enlightening to me. What do you think about it?
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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