Malcolm Gladwell

This was all taking off around the time Lawrence Cole's work with raccoons was being cast aside. That kind of inbreeding helped create rats who were much more docile and easier to control than wild rats, and certainly than raccoons. Which meant it gave the behaviorists easier, more reliable data. And then it just took off.

This was all taking off around the time Lawrence Cole's work with raccoons was being cast aside. That kind of inbreeding helped create rats who were much more docile and easier to control than wild rats, and certainly than raccoons. Which meant it gave the behaviorists easier, more reliable data. And then it just took off.

Soon, a prominent psychologist described the field as being infected by a plague of rats. Millions of dollars poured into rat studies. The leader of the Yale Institute of Human Relations announced that anything he observed about rats' behaviors, among other animals, was, quote, end quote. Let me play you a bit of film that Yale Institute produced.

Soon, a prominent psychologist described the field as being infected by a plague of rats. Millions of dollars poured into rat studies. The leader of the Yale Institute of Human Relations announced that anything he observed about rats' behaviors, among other animals, was, quote, end quote. Let me play you a bit of film that Yale Institute produced.

I think it goes a long way to showing exactly how confident these people were in what studying rats could tell us about people.

I think it goes a long way to showing exactly how confident these people were in what studying rats could tell us about people.

This film has always freaked me out. There's a rat in a cage with an electric current running through the bars. He's gotta figure out how to turn it off.

This film has always freaked me out. There's a rat in a cage with an electric current running through the bars. He's gotta figure out how to turn it off.

The whole time that tone is sounding, the rat is just frantically scrambling around his cage trying to figure out how to make it stop. Then he starts pawing at a wheel and it turns off.

The whole time that tone is sounding, the rat is just frantically scrambling around his cage trying to figure out how to make it stop. Then he starts pawing at a wheel and it turns off.

It turns out zapping a rat is a good way to get it to do anything, including violence.

It turns out zapping a rat is a good way to get it to do anything, including violence.

If you could teach a rat to do anything, why not a person? Suddenly, the scary world of the 20th century began to seem a lot more manageable. Mass movements, Great Depressions, whatever. Just find the right set of incentives or punishments, and all of human behavior could be predicted and controlled.

If you could teach a rat to do anything, why not a person? Suddenly, the scary world of the 20th century began to seem a lot more manageable. Mass movements, Great Depressions, whatever. Just find the right set of incentives or punishments, and all of human behavior could be predicted and controlled.

Few people questioned the dominance of the rat at first. Why bother when it was working so well? This kind of thing has always bothered me on a gut level. I look in the mirror every day and I do not see a rat staring back at me, at least not since patching the hole in my bathroom wall. We aren't rats.

Few people questioned the dominance of the rat at first. Why bother when it was working so well? This kind of thing has always bothered me on a gut level. I look in the mirror every day and I do not see a rat staring back at me, at least not since patching the hole in my bathroom wall. We aren't rats.

I'm not saying we can't learn anything about ourselves from animals, but I am saying that you should never underestimate how many of the things we think we know about human beings are actually things we know about inbred rats with brains the size of grapes kept in cages that sometimes electrocute you.

I'm not saying we can't learn anything about ourselves from animals, but I am saying that you should never underestimate how many of the things we think we know about human beings are actually things we know about inbred rats with brains the size of grapes kept in cages that sometimes electrocute you.

We built a science of human nature, and one of the strongest pillars was the lab rat. And who is the lab rat? He's crucially not the raccoon. The raccoon lets it all hang out. He's defiant, mischievous, crafty. If asked to participate in a scientific experiment, he will inquire about payment, then call in sick. Not the rat. The rat is hardworking by instinct, diligent. He gnaws away.

We built a science of human nature, and one of the strongest pillars was the lab rat. And who is the lab rat? He's crucially not the raccoon. The raccoon lets it all hang out. He's defiant, mischievous, crafty. If asked to participate in a scientific experiment, he will inquire about payment, then call in sick. Not the rat. The rat is hardworking by instinct, diligent. He gnaws away.