Too Rich, Too Comfortable: Why Japan Is so Resistant to Change Even as Disaster Looms - Quartz

submitted by Vigte from (getpocket.com)

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[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

"Behavioral sink" is a term invented by ethologist John B. Calhoun to describe a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding. The term and concept derive from a series of over-population experiments Calhoun conducted on Norway rats between 1958 and 1962.[1] In the experiments, Calhoun and his researchers created a series of "rat utopias" - enclosed spaces in which rats were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling unfettered population growth.

[–]Vigte[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Very interesting... sorry it took me a day to get around to replying. I've heard a lot about the mouse utopias - but I didn't think it would apply here, good catch!

I wouldn't necessarily say that humans (even in Japan) are (fully/exactly) over-crowded in the same sense as the mouse experiments however, everyone still has personal space and freedoms - where as the mice thing was just a pit of the poor bastards in one area.

Who was it, Sartre, that said "Hell is being in a room forever with your friends".