During the Rat Universe experiment of 1958 to 1962, where the enclosure was indoors and built much smaller, John Calhoun coined the term behavioral sink as the phenomenon that occurs when rats become overcrowded. They begin to socially withdraw, turn homosexual, and act more aggressive. From 1968 to 1972, they ran the Universe 25 experiment for mice. A 9 by 9 foot metal enclosure was constructed, built to hold about 3,800 mice with unlimited food, water, and nesting supplies. The enclosure was climate controlled, and none of the mice had to be concerned with predators or disease. Universe 25 started with four breeding pairs of mice on July 9, 1968, and during the first year, the mice thrived.

The population doubled about every two months, until it peaked on day 560, and for the next two years, the population declined. During this two-year decline, the behavior of the mice changed. Alpha males who were initially dominant became passive and no longer defended their territory. Other males became hyper-aggressive and attacked without provocation, and many of the males fell into the category known as the beautiful ones. These males exclusively spent their time alone, avoiding all social and sexual behavior. They obsessed over grooming themselves, and appeared to be the most physically healthy. Overall, the males lost interest in having sex with females, and the females lost interest in being mothers.

They began showing aggression toward their offspring, including killing and eating them, and their bodies began miscarrying. Even though the population dropped and the living space increased, the mice did not recover. Calhoun interpreted the reason for this collapse to be the result of a spiritual death, which then directly led to a physical death. He wrote that, The first death is that of the spirit. Their spirit has died. They are no longer capable of executing the more complex behaviors compatible with species’ survival. Calhoun was saying that if you diminish a creature’s spirit, it will lose its survival instincts.

He saw how this would affect life for humans, and said that the establishment would have to change in order to avoid social breakdown in crowded human environments. We need a better establishment to allow interrelationships to protect us from too many contacts, but to allow us for those contacts which we do engage in to be more meaningful for our own lives and for meaningful to others in a compassionate sense of each of us being involved in helping the other to fulfill his role, who have many more roles. Studies have shown that people who live in large cities are less happy and have less meaningful lives than those who live in small towns.

For many of us, it is no surprise to learn that living like pets in large crowded cities is unhealthy for humans. But for the establishment, it’s big business. Studies in China and the USA show that residents living in more populated areas spend more money and consume more products. This is because most social interactions become comparative and competitive, more about having the same things as your neighbors and less about meaningful friendships. The 15-minute cities will grow, but so will small community, as many humans are learning to reject the establishment and take responsibility for their own lives. Greg Reiss reporting.

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