Forming Bonds in Rat Park

Thinking about how to solve the plight of the homeless, my brother and I just watched a Ted talk about addiction. In that talk, the speaker, Johann Hari, described a study that found that, while rats in individual cages can become consumed by drug addiction, rats in a shared cage with lots of fun things to do (a "rat park" as it were) managed to shrug off the effects of the drugs to which they had access. Hari suggested that the reason the "rat park" rats weren't badly affected by the drugs was that they didn't need them. They had other stimulants, including friends and toys, that they could turn to instead of drugs. Rats, like humans, are intelligent and social creatures, accustomed to forming bonds with others of their own species, or in the absence of fellow species members, with anything they can bond with.

The theory goes that humans, like rats, are naturally inclined to bond with other people. When we can't satisfactorily bond with other humans (for any number of reasons), we tend to turn to other things, like animals, entertainment, and/or drugs. We turn to other things, and can become addicted by them, to fill the void left by the lack of meaningful human interaction. Thus, to solve the problem of addiction, we have to reach out and connect with people.

Of course, this is just one theory, and it would be helpful to do more studies like the one with the Rat Park, to see if they produce similar results. Furthermore, what works for rats may not work for humans, so we can't pretend that we've found the magical cure for human addiction, but it still might help. If you or anyone you know are struggling with addiction, I would encourage you to reach out and to try to form the kind of human connection that the addict may need. We know that we all need friends in life and that we tend to form special, sacred bonds with out families. Now, thanks to some rat research, we may have found out why. Humans and Rats both want to form bonds, and if we don't want them to bond with drugs or other addictive habits or practices, we may have to find other things, or other people, for them to bond with.