Scientific Expirement | Theory of Hope in Rat Experiments

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Curt Richter In the fifties he was a psychologist. One of his experiments was to bring a group of mice and place each in a large glass vase, filled with water. The pot is glass and large so that the mouse can not cling to its claws or jump out of the pot.

Richter used to calculate the time each mouse would continue to swim and try to get out before surrendering to the sinking. Of course there was a difference between each mouse and the other but on average the mouse was trying for about 15 minutes and then succumb to drowning.

Richter re-experimented but with some change .. When he saw the mouse in the last moments and that he was about to surrender was taken out of the pot and drying and leave him resting for a while .. Then put it back in the pot!

Do this with all the mice then take the calculated mean time at the second time for the mice .. Remember that the first medium was approximately 15 minutes ..

How much do you expect to be the average time on the second try?

More than 60 hours !! .. hours and not minutes! There was a mouse that lasted for about 81 hours.

The analysis of the experiment is that the rats in the first attempt quickly lost hope after they proved that there was no way out. The second time they had previous experience that there was hope and that at any moment they might extend a helping hand to rescue them so they continued to wait for better conditions.

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