StumbleUpon has led me to so many interesting things!! Check it out if you haven't already!
Here's an interesting page I found there recently:
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You can read all of the details at
www.mostlyodd.com/death-by-utopia/ but I'll try to encapsulate some of it for you.
All quotes offered here are from that article.
In 1947 researcher John Calhoon began experimenting with rats.
Before you start thinking too much about that I'll plow on. : )
He allowed their populations to grow into the spaces they were confined to and observed their behavior.
As they grew into an area and began to over-populate it...their behavior began to dramatically change.
Both males and females became much more aggressive and began attacking each other including their own young breaking into "pointless and sporadic violence".
"Females stopped reproducing and even started attacking their own young.
Mortality rose phenomenally. Roaming mice either attacked or attempted
to mount others, irrespective of relation or gender, cannibalism and
other acts of depravity consumed them."
"Then
there were the ‘beautiful ones.' ".
"The ‘beautiful ones’ withdrew themselves ever so quietly, removing
themselves from the sick society. Solitary pursuits began to define
them; eating, drinking and grooming among others. No scars on their back
or hairs out-of-place, these mice behaved like a separate race. They
saw the world through their narrow scopes, as they tossed, turned and
tried to cope."
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"In the end the population sank, even when it was back down to a
tolerable level none of the mice changed back. The change was
irreversible, the mice were different now."
"This tipping over into irreversible
societal collapse came to be known as ‘The Behavioral Sink.’ John
Calhoun called it the first death. Death of the mind and soul, leading
eventually to the second death, of the physical form. What he meant was
that after the first death, the mice were no longer mice and could never
be so again."
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"In spite of this many believe Calhoon's research has brought positive changes to our world!"
"For the first time in history, over 50% of the world population exists
within cities, and they are safer than ever before, due in part to the
ideas drawn from John B. Calhoun and his pungent rodents. His 1973 paper
has been classed as one of the 40 most influential psychology papers of
all time, and with good reason, it may have indirectly saved thousands
of lives."
