Say Cheese! The artist trained two rats to take selfies… and they wouldn't stop
It turns out that humans aren't the only mammals addicted to taking selfies.
A French artist trained rats for two months to press a small shutter button on a camera pointed straight at them in a photo booth-like machine. The rodents pressed it a few hundred times.
The experiment was inspired by famed psychologist Dr Burrhus Frederic Skinner, who used positive reinforcement by teaching rats to press a lever in a 'Skinner box' – and Augustine Lignier replicated the study, but with selfies.
“I was trying to understand how experiments from the 1950s could influence behavior now that we have social media and smartphones,” Lingnier told DailyMail.com.
Inspired by Skinner's box, Lignier built a towering structure with a camera at the top and a mechanism that released a small dose of sugar each time the rat pressed the shutter.
“At some point, the rats stopped taking the sugar,” the artist said, explaining that the animals realized they were getting the same dopamine just by pressing the button and simply took playful pictures.
A French artist trained rats for two months to press a small shutter button on a camera pointed straight at them in a photo booth-like machine
This rat pushed him a few hundred times – the most out of the two rodents
The revised Skinner's Box contained a camera, flashlight, computer hard drive and a sugar dispensary attached to a wheel, along with food and water.
Construction of the transparent box took approximately two months, which also involved testing and adjusting the structure.
Lignier said the rats also damaged the structure during the training and he had to make several repairs.
He then went to work teaching the rats to take selfies by pressing the little button – training for a few hours a day.
The rats were then removed from the box for about a week and then put back in to do the process again.
The artist initially had a screen in the front for the animals to see their photos, but removed it after they did not respond to the images.
“They didn't respond because they didn't pass the mirror tests,” Lignier.
He saw how the rats pressed the button every half minute later in the experiment.
Augustin Lignier used a Skinner's box, developed by a famous psychologist, to test animal behavior. The revised Skinner's Box contained a camera, flashlight, computer hard drive and a sugar dispensary attached to a wheel, along with food and water
Lignier built a towering structure with a camera at the top and a mechanism that released a small dose of sugar every time the rat pressed the shutter
“At some point, the rats stopped taking the sugar,” the artist said, explaining that the animals realized they were getting the same dopamine just by pressing the button
However, Lignier also found that the multicolored rat pressed the button more than the white one, even after it stopped taking the sugar.
Skinner, a renowned American psychologist and behaviorist, conducted several experiments with rats throughout his career, focusing mainly on operant conditioning.
His famous Skinner box, created in the 1930s, allowed him to study animals in controlled environments.
About twenty years after the structure was built, Skinner placed rats in a chamber equipped with a lever and a food dispenser.
When the lever was pressed by the rat, a food pellet was released. Skinner observed how rats learned to associate lever pressing with obtaining food, leading to an increase in lever pressing behavior.
Things like slot machines used parts of the experiment to keep people playing and spending money – and the same goes for social media companies to keep users scrolling, liking and commenting.
Selfie Rats conducts a three-phase experiment with a group of rodents. A group of rats are trained with a sugar distribution system connected to a camera and produce images of themselves by interacting with the photographic device
Initially driven by the trained urge to eat sugar, they eventually just playfully take pictures
Lignier said he was trying to understand how experiments from the 1950s could influence behavior now that we have social media and smartphones
Social media addiction has become widespread in our society, with the National Addiction Center recognizing it as a similar behavioral addiction.
Psychologists estimate that more than five to ten percent of Americans suffer from a social media addiction that could be equated to any other addiction.
“Studies have shown that the constant stream of retweets, likes and shares from these sites causes the reward area of the brain to produce the same kind of chemical reaction that occurs with drugs like cocaine,” the Addiction Center said.
'Neuroscientists have compared social media interaction to a syringe of dopamine injected directly into the system.'
Lignier compared the results to how people are attached to their phones in the digital age.
The difference is that social media platforms use likes and comments to trigger the same reaction the rat had when given a dose of sugar, and it keeps people coming back for more.
Similarly, sugar has been linked to dopamine and several studies claim it is just as addictive as drugs like cocaine and heroin, according to the Wellness Retreat Recovery Center, making it the ideal substance to induce the same reaction to the rat's selfies. cause.
The artist said that humans are wired to press a button, and his experiment showed that rats do the same
The rats spent a few hours a day in the box, then were taken out for a week and put back inside and the process repeated
The Skinner box showed that the triggered dopamine response keeps us coming back to our social media for more, it's what compels us to share a photo of the dinner we made or the concert we attended.
“Social media is designed to manipulate our brains, and teens are particularly susceptible to its addictive effects,” says Nancy DeAngelis, CRNP, Director of Behavioral Health, Jefferson Health – Abington in an article from Jefferson Health.
“The overuse of social media can rewire a young child or teen's brain to constantly seek immediate gratification, which can lead to obsessive, compulsive and addictive behavior.”