Malcolm Gladwell

except there was a movement that was growing swiftly within cole's field right around then which was explicitly uncomfortable with any talk of an animal having a mind and it was fast becoming the only show in town it was called behaviorism all this history is documented in an amazing article by michael pettit titled the problem of raccoon intelligence in behaviorist america

Which is one of my favorite academic essays of all time. Because the raccoon was indeed a problem.

Which is one of my favorite academic essays of all time. Because the raccoon was indeed a problem.

Bob Bailey. He used to be the top guy at a legendary behaviorist organization called Animal Behavior Enterprises. The founders of that company wrote an infamous paper questioning the fundamentals of behaviorism, the idea that all animals were blank slates you could write whatever you wanted on. A key example? One raccoon they'd trained to put coins in a box.

Bob Bailey. He used to be the top guy at a legendary behaviorist organization called Animal Behavior Enterprises. The founders of that company wrote an infamous paper questioning the fundamentals of behaviorism, the idea that all animals were blank slates you could write whatever you wanted on. A key example? One raccoon they'd trained to put coins in a box.

Eventually, and most of the time, were bad news for people trying to turn psychology into a reputable hard science. That raccoon box situation came later on. But this exact dynamic put a bit of a target on Lawrence Cole, the frontier raccoonist. And if you know anything about the history of psychology, you'll know how the problem of the raccoon was solved. Raccoon erasure.

Eventually, and most of the time, were bad news for people trying to turn psychology into a reputable hard science. That raccoon box situation came later on. But this exact dynamic put a bit of a target on Lawrence Cole, the frontier raccoonist. And if you know anything about the history of psychology, you'll know how the problem of the raccoon was solved. Raccoon erasure.

The raccoon does not figure prominently at all. But you know which animal does? The rat. I'm curious about how you account for that historical process of raccoon erasure that begins around then.

The raccoon does not figure prominently at all. But you know which animal does? The rat. I'm curious about how you account for that historical process of raccoon erasure that begins around then.

But it wasn't just about convenience. It was also difficult to generalize from raccoon experiments. Rats, for example, behaved in predictable, repeatable ways. Raccoons, not so much. How is a scientist supposed to work with an animal who each spring gets wanderlust and attempts to break out of their cage?

But it wasn't just about convenience. It was also difficult to generalize from raccoon experiments. Rats, for example, behaved in predictable, repeatable ways. Raccoons, not so much. How is a scientist supposed to work with an animal who each spring gets wanderlust and attempts to break out of their cage?

What do you do when your experimental raccoon colony does escape and moves into your lab's ventilation system? As behaviorism gained steam, scientists in the big cities attacked the nascent science of raccoons. Wasn't this all a bit silly? Meanwhile, other behaviorists complained that keeping raccoon colonies was really just a huge pain in the neck. And so we got the century of the rat.

What do you do when your experimental raccoon colony does escape and moves into your lab's ventilation system? As behaviorism gained steam, scientists in the big cities attacked the nascent science of raccoons. Wasn't this all a bit silly? Meanwhile, other behaviorists complained that keeping raccoon colonies was really just a huge pain in the neck. And so we got the century of the rat.

And to a lesser degree, the pigeon. This behaviorism is a theory of control.

And to a lesser degree, the pigeon. This behaviorism is a theory of control.

Behaviorists thought they were studying an animal that stood in for all human beings. But actually, they wound up studying a lot of lab rats. And that led us to some pretty flawed conclusions about people. We'll be right back.

Behaviorists thought they were studying an animal that stood in for all human beings. But actually, they wound up studying a lot of lab rats. And that led us to some pretty flawed conclusions about people. We'll be right back.

For a little while now, I've been interested in how the lab rat has shaped our understanding of human beings. Rats are all over the history of psychology. Rat studies of depression. Rat studies of cooperation. Rat studies of rationality. Think about the way we speak. Rat in a maze. The rat race. Mall rat. Gym rat. Smell a rat. A rat's nest. It's all rats all the way down.

For a little while now, I've been interested in how the lab rat has shaped our understanding of human beings. Rats are all over the history of psychology. Rat studies of depression. Rat studies of cooperation. Rat studies of rationality. Think about the way we speak. Rat in a maze. The rat race. Mall rat. Gym rat. Smell a rat. A rat's nest. It's all rats all the way down.

I figured if anyone could tell me about how exactly this all came to be, it would be one of the leading rat behavioral researchers in the country, Dr. Kelly Lambert at the University of Richmond.