24
Laboratory Rats And The Oil Crisis
If a laboratory rat is confronted by an artificial beast larger than
himself, he cowers.  The mechanical bully can abuse the rat all it wants, and
the bludgeoned creature will not raise a paw to counter-attack.  But offer the
victimized rodent a smaller rat as a companion and a strange thing happens.
The black and blue animal will not turn to his smaller companion for solace.
Taking advantage of his new cagemate's diminutive size, he will turn on the
beast and beat the bejesus out of it.45  Rats in groups are even worse than
individuals.  Put seven or eight of the rodents on an electrified floor, turn on
the juice, and what happens?  The gang will single out one of its members for
punishment and attack him mercilessly.46
The rat is not alone.  Says Jane Goodall, one of the most common
causes of brutality among chimpanzees is "frustration that leads an
individual who has been thwarted by one stronger to turn and vent his
aggression on a smaller or weaker bystander."47  We humans, alas, are built
with the same pusillanimous circuitry.  When we are battered by forces
beyond our control, we look around for someone small to punch.
Yale University researchers John Dollard, Neal E. Miller and a team of
colleagues saw this mechanism at work in 1939, as they painstakingly
assembled the evidence for their classic "frustration-aggression hypothesis."
The scholars reviewed figures on cotton prices in fourteen southern states
over a period of 48 years.  When cotton prices dipped, the white farmers who
depended on the crop for their living took a beating.  How did these
unfortunate country folk make up for pinched budgets, lowered status, and
the humiliation of mounting debts?  They turned around and tormented
someone even more helpless than themselves: the local blacks.  Whenever
cotton prices plummeted, lynchings shot up.48
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