Rat Park - Reaction To The Experiment

Reaction To The Experiment

The two major science journals Science and Nature rejected Alexander's first paper, which was published in Psychopharmacology, a specialty journal. Several later studies did appear to confirm its findings — for example, Bozarth, Murray and Wise in 1989, also published in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior — but nothing came of those either. Writer Lauren Slater, Alexander's daughter-in-law, interviewed psychiatrist Herbert Kleber, director of the substance-abuse division of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and a former U.S. deputy drug czar, on what was wrong with Rat Park. He replied that the experiment was "ingenious," but suggested that Alexander may have distorted the data in the hope of provoking a public debate, and that the study had methodological flaws, though he did not state examples. Slater believes Rat Park's problem was that it was conducted in Vancouver, the "scholarly equivalent of the tundra."

While the original experiment's results were not always reproduced (though in this case, both caged and "park" rats showed a decreased preference for morphine, suggesting a genetic difference), the publications did draw attention to the idea that the environment that laboratory animals live in might influence the outcome in experiments related to addiction. As of 2006, papers from the series of experiments have been cited more than 100 times, and similar studies on the influence of living conditions on the consumption of other drugs have been published.

Alexander was disappointed by the reception, and still speaks of the experiments enthusiastically. Since 1985, Alexander has been exploring addiction in human beings by way of historical and anthropological studies of many cultures. His newest book, "The Globalisation of Addiction: A study in poverty of the spirit" argues that cultural dislocation of human beings instigates addictions of all sorts, including addictions that do not involve drugs, just as isolation instigates drug consumption in laboratory animals.