As many as 60 of the 80 rats in each experimental population would assemble in one pen during periods of feeding. The animals would crowd together in greatest number in one of the four interconnecting pens in which the colony was maintained. The common source of these disturbances became most dramatically apparent in the populations of our first series of three experiments, in which we observed the development of what we called a behavioral sink. 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 it, Calhoun described the behavior as follows: In it, Calhoun coined the term " behavioral sink".Ĭalhoun's work became used, rightly or wrongly, as an animal model of societal collapse, and his study has become a touchstone of urban sociology and psychology in general. Over a number of years, Calhoun conducted over-population experiments on rats which culminated in 1962 with the publication of an article in the Scientific American of a study of behavior under conditions of overcrowding. Calhoun coined the term " behavioral sink" to describe the collapse in behavior which resulted from overcrowding.
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