Malcolm Gladwell

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.

He navigates complex warrants. He gets a perfect score on his SATs. He's rational. Build the maze, and he'll fall in line. He is, in short, a good animal for running the same test again and again and again, without complaint, while delivering consistent, reliable data suggesting that we humans behave in consistent, reliable ways.

He navigates complex warrants. He gets a perfect score on his SATs. He's rational. Build the maze, and he'll fall in line. He is, in short, a good animal for running the same test again and again and again, without complaint, while delivering consistent, reliable data suggesting that we humans behave in consistent, reliable ways.

For all this, the rat has been rewarded by becoming the only animal synonymous with the scientific laboratory. It's not lab pigeon. It's not lab monkey. It's lab rat. But I was beginning to wonder, what if it should have been lab raccoon? We'll be right back.

For all this, the rat has been rewarded by becoming the only animal synonymous with the scientific laboratory. It's not lab pigeon. It's not lab monkey. It's lab rat. But I was beginning to wonder, what if it should have been lab raccoon? We'll be right back.

Some years ago, when Michael Pettit was working on his ingenious article about raccoon erasure, he took a colleague out to lunch, Suzanne MacDonald, behaviorist and expert in animal cognition. He told her what he'd been learning about Lawrence Cole and the early raccoon studies. She, a fellow Torontonian beset by the plague of raccoons, was like, oh my god, how did we miss this?

Some years ago, when Michael Pettit was working on his ingenious article about raccoon erasure, he took a colleague out to lunch, Suzanne MacDonald, behaviorist and expert in animal cognition. He told her what he'd been learning about Lawrence Cole and the early raccoon studies. She, a fellow Torontonian beset by the plague of raccoons, was like, oh my god, how did we miss this?

By monkeys of North America, you mean they fill a certain ecological niche?

By monkeys of North America, you mean they fill a certain ecological niche?

Traveling to study monkeys was expensive. If raccoons were like monkeys, then living in Toronto was like living on safari. So McDonald caught the Lawrence coal bug. She began to study raccoons, and she's been doing it ever since.

Traveling to study monkeys was expensive. If raccoons were like monkeys, then living in Toronto was like living on safari. So McDonald caught the Lawrence coal bug. She began to study raccoons, and she's been doing it ever since.

McDonald has become one of the world's leading experts in raccoons, and in particular, the urban raccoons of Toronto, with whom I think she feels a strong kinship. For instance, I've seen people saying that there are 100,000 raccoons in Toronto. Where did they get that number?

McDonald has become one of the world's leading experts in raccoons, and in particular, the urban raccoons of Toronto, with whom I think she feels a strong kinship. For instance, I've seen people saying that there are 100,000 raccoons in Toronto. Where did they get that number?

McDonald told me that she was the origin of that statistic, and she just made a number up, which is exactly what a raccoon would do. She gets it. So after a century of waiting, I prepared to receive the good news about the raccoon's true intelligence from the source. I leaned back in my desk chair.