Now even rats are embracing the art of the selfie and loving it

Professional photographer Augustin Lignier had a unique inspiration for his latest photo project – a photo booth for rats. After pondering the modern-day compulsion to take and share photos online, Lignier decided to build a box for rats that would dispense sugar and take their picture whenever they pressed a button. The resulting images were displayed on a screen for the rats to view. Indeed, the rodents quickly became enthusiastic button pushers and would continue to do so even when the reward became more unpredictable. Lignier connected this concept to the way social media companies use intermittent rewards to keep the attention of their users for as long as possible. He went a step further to draw similarities between rats pressing buttons and human behavior, suggesting that both rats, and humans are willing to engage in activities that provide immediate reward rather than sit in quiet contemplation. This idea was supported by the findings of a 2014 study which found that many human volunteers would rather administer electric shocks to themselves than be left alone with their thoughts. In the age of digital and social media, people may be more likely to engage in activities that provide immediate rewards, like scrolling through endless Instagram photos, rather than sit alone with their thoughts. Lignier’s thought-provoking photo experiment suggests that humans may have more in common with simple laboratory rats than we realize.

Source
Photo credit www.nytimes.com