Does Open Space Has An Effect On Your Psychology?

In the July of 1968, John B. Calhoun, a respected research psychologist conducted a now-famous experiment on the effect of space on the state of mind. Of course, no human was experimented on. The study only involved rats.

He placed 4 pairs of rats in a utopian universe where there’s no lack of food and water and there were no predators.

The rats, as expected, multiplied rapidly. Their population doubled every 55 days or so. Things got interesting by day 315, when their population reached 620.

By this time, space became precious as their population density increase beyond their comfort level. For the first time since the introduction of rats, population growth started to decline and their normal behavior changed.

Females began to expel their young before weaning was complete. There was always activity of wounding their young as they got more aggressive. And as time went by, the females stopped reproducing all together.

Dominant males started to ignore their role of defending their territory and mate. Non-dominant males avoid fighting back when attacked. Instead, the males withdrew completely, neither mate nor fight. Instead, they were grooming themselves – resulting in the lack of scars and healthy coats.

The last surviving birth was at day 600, after which day the population began to decline into extinction.

Sounds familiar?

Could space have the same effect on us humans? Would we react the same way the rats did in the experiment?

Calhoun certainly thought so… and 40 years later, nothing’s changed. If anything, thing’s got worse.

There are no shortage of studies done on the effect of space on the mind and all of them points to one fact: we don’t respond well when there’s over-crowding. Yet few of us realize our need to be in an open-space.