This. It's more useful as an argument for population control than against communism.
Repeat the same experiment while using birth control to limit the rat population and it would work just fine.
Rat Utopia
Logan Russell
Cooper Walker
>this case study of a different species in a weirdly specific scenario foretells the future of our civilization
quasi-schizophrenic soothsaying tbhfam
Jaxson Myers
I’ll repeat this request, show me where humans refuse to eat alone and murder do/or eat babies to fuck their mother.
Michael Mitchell
It wouldn’t. The inherent problem was the way rat colonies function or more precisely don’t function in a cage.
Asher Nelson
I really don't understand why is it called "utopia"
The mice were forced to live into an enclosed space, with no stimulation of any kind. Unless your definition of utopia is living in prison, it was not a utopia.
It is excusable for the guy that made the experiment, since at the time animal intelligence was still an undeveloped field, but not for thos coming after them.
Elijah Taylor
So if you find yourself discussing Dr Calhoun's study here's a few good points:
The study is old and very flawed:
-It did not have a control group
-The genetic diversity of the mice population was not considered and so might have influenced the results (inbreeding issues)
-There was a complete lack of recreational tools. The study was made 50 years ago and animal intelligence was still a pretty young concept. Today we know that mammalians (and avians and others) need entertainment to be healthy, on top of food and shelter
-We also know now that animals are negatively impacted by prolongued containment. Another psychological trait that was not taken care of in the study. In fact we can see similar behaviours in animal industrial farms. Nothing to do with "overpopulation" in terms of absolute population numbers, but rather restricted living conditions.
Also while there are similarities with how human societies behave, there are no studies that could prove overpopulation is actually detrimental to human psychology.
Jonathan Freedman also studied the phenomenon of overpopulation and he came to the conclusion that what really impacts humans is not overpopulation per se but the quality of human interactions. In essence lack of privacy and uncontrolled social interactions in a competitive enviroment. In other words little space for personal growth and constant, forced interactions with society, in particular segments with which the individual is in competition.
Somewhat similarly, the actual conclusion of Calhoun is that "mouse utopia" like phenomena would appear in a society that fails to properly handle generational changes. For example in societies where the older generations live longer than usual and the population growth is still within normal limit. In this case the issue of overpopulation is not so much in terms of "too many humans" or "too many/too few resources" or even "too little physical space", but rather in terms of social space for personal advancement and satisfaction. In other words, the younger generation is unable to apply itself in a way that finds satisfactory and the older generation is unable/unwilling to give space.
Calhoun's idea is that society would fall into a sort of catch 22: newer generations do not have the occasion to properly develop their emotional intelligence because of the restricted possibilities no longer offered by society; Consequence of this is they struggle to comprehend and replicate complex social interactions that further restricts their possibilities to find proper social roles and so fulfilling lives. At the same time society needs to become more complex to handle the population increase, both in economical and social terms, putting further strain on the social development of the youth.
From this perspective, it does have some value for us.
Nathaniel Martinez
Kevin Cook
Where is this and did it actually happen there?
Leo Torres
find dense urban area in the third world
Zachary Turner
citations fucking needed