Malcolm Gladwell

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.

Lambert loves rats. She's written a book called The Lab Rat Chronicles. A neuroscientist reveals life lessons from the planet's most successful mammals. She's particularly famous for experiments where she taught rats to drive cars, which, if we're being honest, is really why I got into Richmond.

Lambert loves rats. She's written a book called The Lab Rat Chronicles. A neuroscientist reveals life lessons from the planet's most successful mammals. She's particularly famous for experiments where she taught rats to drive cars, which, if we're being honest, is really why I got into Richmond.

If you've seen Stuart Little in his red convertible, you're not even half prepared for the image of a lab rat hunched over the dashboard on what appears to be a monster truck, just careening towards a bunch of Froot Loops. Lambert loves working with her rats. But lately, she's also been questioning how the rat became the be-all, end-all for understanding human beings.

If you've seen Stuart Little in his red convertible, you're not even half prepared for the image of a lab rat hunched over the dashboard on what appears to be a monster truck, just careening towards a bunch of Froot Loops. Lambert loves working with her rats. But lately, she's also been questioning how the rat became the be-all, end-all for understanding human beings.

Basically, it's the lab rat industry. There was a whole factory line system around producing lab rats via mass inbreeding, premised on the fantasy that the inbred rats were basically interchangeable with one another.

Basically, it's the lab rat industry. There was a whole factory line system around producing lab rats via mass inbreeding, premised on the fantasy that the inbred rats were basically interchangeable with one another.

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.