[Boomer]

For those who cannot stand close quarters, TV probably is not the place to be.

Whenever I read one of these threads with complaints about neighbors or traffic or long waits at restaurants or maxed out clubs or long lines at rec centers or overbuilding or. . . on and on it goes, and now it's about dryer sheets -- well, it makes me think of that rather famous 1960s experiment........

John Calhoun was a researcher who was concerned about the effects of population density on behavior, so he built a mouse utopia where the mice had everything they needed and things were lovely for them, for a while. But then their once-utopia got way too crowded and things got ugly.

Calhoun used the term "behavioral sink" to describe the collapse in behavior that resulted when the population exploded.

A conclusion of Calhoun's 1960s experiment showed that although most of the mice went crazy from excessive social interaction due to population density, there were some mice who did OK because they had managed to control their own space and kept things relatively normal.

Now, of course, I know we humans have better coping skills than mice and should be able to adjust or avoid. But the experiment is interesting to read about anyway. Parallels could exist in some cases.

Adjust or avoid.

Boomer