![]() The social organization of the animals showed equal disruption. Among the males the behavior disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic overactivity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep. An even greater number, after successfully giving birth, fell short in their maternal functions. Many were unable to carry pregnancy to full term or to survive delivery of their litters if they did. ![]() In the 1962 study, Calhoun described the behavior as follows: He would later perform similar experiments on mice, from 1968 to 1972.Ĭalhoun's work became used as an animal model of societal collapse, and his study has become a touchstone of urban sociology and psychology in general. Calhoun coined the term "behavioral sink" in his Februreport in an article titled "Population Density and Social Pathology" in Scientific American on the rat experiment. 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. ![]() The term and concept derive from a series of over-population experiments Calhoun conducted on Norway rats between 19. Calhoun to describe a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding. " Behavioral sink" is a term invented by ethologist John B. Conceptual collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding
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