His study has been cited by writers such as Bill Perkins as a warning of the dangers of living in an “increasingly crowded and impersonal world.” He characterized the social breakdown as a “second death,” with reference to the “second death” mentioned in the Biblical book of Revelation 2:11. The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when all available space is taken and all social roles filled, competition and the stresses experienced by the individuals will result in a total breakdown in complex social behaviors, ultimately resulting in the demise of the population.Ĭalhoun saw the fate of the population of mice as a metaphor for the potential fate of man. They were dubbed “the beautiful ones.” Breeding never resumed and behavior patterns were permanently changed. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves-all solitary pursuits. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting and only engaging in tasks that were essential to their health. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Īfter day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. Among the aberrations in behavior were the following: expulsion of young before weaning was complete, wounding of young, inability of dominant males to maintain the defense of their territory and females, aggressive behavior of females, passivity of non-dominant males with increased attacks on each other which were not defended against. This period between day 315 and day 600 saw a breakdown in social structure and in normal social behavior. The last surviving birth was on day 600, bringing the total population to a mere 2200 mice, even though the experiment setup allowed for as many as 3840 mice in terms of nesting space. The population reached 620 by day 315, after which the population growth dropped markedly, doubling only every 145 days. Initially, the population grew rapidly, doubling every 55 days. After he published an extremely popular article in Scientific American in 1962 describing the first phase of Mouse Utopia experiments, it became a stock example employed by liberals in application to human populations, particularly for global & urban population growth and any human problem that might be caused by environments, such as the urban decay and riots and spiking crime rates of that era.Īs WP puts it, describing the most famous Mouse Utopia (not to be confused with the also-dubious & also-highly-popular Rat Park experiment), Universe 25: Mouse Utopia is interpreted as illustrating the damaging effects of the environment & overcrowding by John B. Calhoun’s behavioral sink “Mouse Utopia” experiments? Mouse Utopia is a legendary experiment in which mice were put in a high-density enclosure (“Universe 25”) with unlimited food, a ‘mouse utopia’-only to see the initial population growth be followed by a population collapse generations later, while the late mouse population exhibited bizarre physical & social abnormalities such as autistic-like behavior & homosexuality & failure to reproduce. Looking more closely into it, there are reasons to doubt the replicability of the growth & pathological behavior & collapse of this utopia (“no-place”), and if it does happen, whether it is driven by the social pressures as claimed by Calhoun or by other causal mechanisms at least as consistent with the evidence like disease or mutational meltdown. In the usual telling, Mouse Utopia created ideal mouse environments in which the mouse population was permitted to increase as much as possible however, the overcrowding inevitably resulted in extreme levels of physical & social dysfunctionality, and eventually population collapse & even extinction. One of the most famous experiments in psychology & sociology was John Calhoun’s Mouse Utopia experiments in the 1960s–1970s. Did John Calhoun’s 1960s Mouse Utopia really show that animal (and human) populations will expand to arbitrary densities, creating socially-driven pathology and collapse? I give reasons for doubt about its replicability, interpretation, and meaningfulness.
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