Kurt Paul Richter (February 20, 1894 – December 21, 1988) was a biologist, psychologist, and geneticist. He was a professor at Johns Hopkins who conducted a famous and cruel experiment on the psychology of drowning rats in the 1950s.
At the beginning of his experiment, he left domestic rats to swim in buckets full of water. Some rats initially floated around the surface dived to the bottom of the bucket, and struggled to survive for two minutes before drowning and dying. Kurt’s second experiment was with a group of 34 wild rats. Despite being excellent swimmers, wild rats drowned and died within a few minutes. In the next phase of his violent experiment, he chose a combination of domestic and wild rats. During this stage of his experimentation, he also left the rats to drown in buckets of water. This time, Kurt pulled the frightened rats out of the water before they drowned and died. These rats were allowed to recover and restore. And after some time, the same rats were again put in buckets.
He observed that this time the rats swam much longer than the first rats who had not had an experience of saving. Compared to the rats that drowned in two minutes, these rats, once saved before, kept swimming for sixty hours. So the experience of being rescued once gave them HOPE that the situation could change. Hope for the change gave them strength for days to keep swimming to be saved. Kurt concluded that “the rats soon learn that the situation is not really hopeless” and that “the rats did not die after the hopelessness ended.”
Hope can be both a beautiful illusion and a source of strength. Hope becomes a delusion when you become unrealistically optimistic. It will be a source of power if you are prudent in validating facts around yourself and your expectations. From Kurt’s experience, we learn that the life struggle of once-saved rats did not change. Their suffering continued, but their stamina had increased. They were in horrible circumstances, but the limit of their endurance expanded. As the rats were hoping for the sudden appearance of a saviour and redeemer, they kept running their hands and feet…
The journey of the year 2022 came to an end. We were indeed no better than those who did not see 2023. We are starting our new year journey by changing just one digit. Apparently, the same months, weeks, days, hours, offices, and working hours. But there is ample opportunity in this small change. Here is a chance and an excuse to think something new and start something positive with renewed zeal. It’s not just about New Year. All events, accidents, incidents, anniversaries and birthdays give us an opportunity and an excuse for how we respond to these situations. Suppose our survival of last year
gives us hope. So we can continue to fight against unfavourable conditions. Imagining good and better situations is empowering. Positive thinking increases stamina and endurance.
In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, the famous Austrian psychologist who survived the concentration camp calls motivational behaviour and positive thinking a source of happiness and achievement. Social situations around one can be challenging. But your mental and psychological attitude depends on your response to these difficult situations. Being optimistic and having positive thoughts can help you compose yourself better. And rather than being a victim of adversity, one can overcome them by being positive and realistic.
We must remember that psychologists put false hope against no hope rather than
weighing false hope versus real hope. Not having hope is a terrible end, and false hope is much better than no hope because it fuels you with endurance to continue and expect a positive change. The story of Jurek Becker’s novel, Jakob the Liar, is doubted to be 100% true. Born in Poland in 1937, novelist Jurek Becker claims that JAKOB THE LIAR is a true story of giving false hope, which he and his
father had heard about another Jew in the Łódź Ghetto camp who had lied about having a radio.
Jakob the Liar took place in the Łódź Ghetto in 1944, where hopeless Jews were committing suicide to get rid of their agonizing lives. Suddenly the ratio of suicide started declining, and a glow of hope started glittering from the skeleton faces of prisoners. It took a while for the wardens to find out about the man, Jakob, who was telling co-prisoners that he had arranged a radio transmitter and heard the news that the red army was just a few hundred kilometres away from the camp and all prisoners would soon be freed. It is said that Jakob preferred to die instead of telling the truth about his lies.
Presenting this story here is not meant to advocate for false hope. From the experiments of Professor Kurt, the observations of Professor Viktor Frankl, and the novel of Jurek Becker, we learn about the powerful effects of believing.
Believe – a potent tool. The end is dire if you believe there is no hope. If you believe that everything is possible, you have already made it. Let’s make this New Year’s resolution according to your needs with firm and unwavering conviction and move forward with faith in hope.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
(Hebrews11:1)
