BEHAVIOURAL SINK
ETHOLOGIST JOHN B. CALHOUN USED THE PHRASE “BEHAVIOURAL SINK” TO
CHARACTERISE A BREAKDOWN IN CONDUCT THAT MIGHT HAPPEN AS A RESULT OF
OVERPOPULATION. THE PHRASE AND IDEA COME FROM A SEQUENCE IN NORWAY.
Rat overpopulation studies were carried out by Calhoun in 1958–1962. In order to allow or unrestricted population expansion, Calhoun and his colleagues constructed a number of “ratutopias”—enclosed areas with unrestricted access to food and water. In an essay titled “Population Density and Social Pathology,” published in Scientific American on February 1, 1962, Calhoun first used the phrase “BEHAVIOURAL SINK” in reference to the rat experiment. He would later do comparable studies on mice. Between 1968 and 1972, Calhoun’s research became a cornerstone of urban sociology and psychology in general, and his work has been used as an animal model of society’s collapse.
TRIALS AND EXPERIMENTS
Calhoun gave the following description of the behavior in the 1962 study: Many of the female rats either could not carry their
pregnancies to term or, if they could, could not survive giving birth to their litters.Even more were inadequate in their parental tasks even
after having birth.Male behavioral disorders ranged from cannibalism to sexual deviation and from frantic overactivity to
a pathological withdrawal in which people would only come out to eat, drink, and move around while other group members were asleep.
1. The animals’ social structure was similarly disturbed.We saw the emergence of what we termed a behavioral sink in the populations of our first series of three trials, which provided the most striking evidence of the shared cause of these problems.The colony was maintained in four interconnecting pens, where the animals would congregate
.in greater numbers.
2. During meal times, up to 60 of the 80 rats in each experimental group would congregate in a single enclosure.
3. Rats would seldom ever feed by themselves; they would usually only eat in groups.
Extreme population densities thus emerged in the pen used for eating, leaving the populations in the other pens low.
Infant mortality among the population’s most confused groups reached 96 percent
in the tests where the behavioral sink was established
JUSTIFICATION
1. It is believed that the previous involuntary crowding of rats led to the specific voluntary crowding of rats that is described
by the term “behavioral sink”: individual rats grew accustomed to the presence of other rats when they were
eating and started to associate feeding with other rats’ companionship.
2. In the end, Calhoun managed to stop this byaltering a few settings, which somewhat reduced mortality, but the overall
harmful effects of overpopulation persisted.
3. Furthermore, they claimed that “Calhoun’s work was not simply about density in a physical sense, as number of individuals
-per-square-unit-area, but was about degrees of social interaction. “It seems that social density is crucial.
RELEVANCE TO HUMAN BEINGS
1. Much of Calhoun’s writing was expressed in anthropomorphic language, which greatly aided the lay audience’s understanding of his concepts.
2. Even Calhoun saw the fate of the mouse population to be a metaphor for what might happen to humanity in the future.
3. He referred to physical death as the “second death” indicated in the biblical passage Revelation 2:11 and described the COLLAPSE OF SOCIETY AS A “SPIRITUAL DEATH.”
4. Regarding the experiment’s implications, there is disagreement. In his experiment, psychologist Jonathan Freedman
enlisted high school and college students to participate in a series of tests designed to determine how human behavior is affected by density.
5. He took measures of their general unpleasantness, competitiveness, hostility, tension, and discomfort. In 1975, he claimed not to
have discovered any significant adverse effects.
CONCLUSION :
At first, humans fight with each other when the resources are scarce, so at this time, people are focusing on the concept of “survival of the
fittest.” But sooner, when they become rich, they start to mop up all the resources in their favour, and they wish to control as much as possible.
This rat race continues until every rich or strong person does not eliminate all competitors, and then they start destroying everyone who is as rich or
strong as them. Then another fight starts. And this fight or race will not end until they all kill each other, as in the case of rats, when they have a lot of
resources, they start killing each other, and eventually, they finish everything.
सबसे पहले, संसाधन दुर्लभ होने पर मनुष्य एक–दूसरे से लड़ते हैं, इसलिए इस समय, लोग “योग्यतम की उत्तरजीविता” की अवधारणा पर ध्यान केंद्रित कर रहे हैं। लेकिन जल्द ही,
जब वे अमीर हो जाते हैं, तो वे सभी संसाधनों को अपने पक्ष में इकट्ठा करना शुरू कर देते हैं, और जितना संभव हो उतना नियंत्रण करना चाहते हैं।
यह चूहे की दौड़ तब तक जारी रहती है जब तक कि प्रत्येक अमीर या मजबूत व्यक्ति सभी प्रतिस्पर्धियों को खत्म नहीं कर देता है, और फिर वे हर उस व्यक्ति को नष्ट करना शुरू कर देते हैं जो उनके जितना अमीर या मजबूत है। फिर शुरू होती है एक और लड़ाई. और यह लड़ाई या दौड़ तब तक ख़त्म नहीं होगी जब तक कि वे सभी एक-दूसरे को मार न डालें, जैसा कि चूहों के मामले में होता है, जब उनके पास बहुत सारे संसाधन होते हैं, तो वे एक-दूसरे को मारना शुरू कर देते हैं और अंततः, वे सब कुछ ख़त्म कर देते हैं।
