--- title: "Amateur Scientist Teaches Rats to Take Selfies" description: "If you give a rat a camera, it will, apparently, take selfies — even if it doesn't get a treat as a reward." date: "2024-01-24" modified: "2024-01-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/rat-selfies" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "animals" - "rats" - "skinner box" - "the digest" --- # Amateur Scientist Teaches Rats to Take Selfies ![If you give a rat a camera, it will, apparently, take selfies — even if it doesn't get a treat as a reward.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Cool Pix If you give a rat a camera, it will apparently take selfies. That was the biggest takeaway from a fresh riff on a classic rat experiment undertaken by French photographer and amateur behaviorist Augustin Lignier, who [told the *New York Times*]() that when he taught some pet store rats how to take selfies using a lever that snapped a pic and rewarded them with some sugar, the photo-snapping continued even after the treats stopped. Born from a desire to understand why people take and post so many self-portraits online, Lignier designed a modified version of behaviorist B.F. Skinner's conditioning experiments wherein rats were given food for pushing a button inside a box. Known now as the "[Skinner box]()," this groundbreaking methodology developed in the 1930s has been used repeatedly in the past century not just to study behavior but also as an allegory — and has even served to describe [humans' relationship to social media](). The photographer's Skinner box had a few key differences from the original: its walls were translucent and when the rats pushed the levers, a camera placed outside the apparatus would take their photos that would then be displayed on a screen the rats could view immediately after. Initially, the rats would be given sugar each time they pressed the lever, but the sweets became intermittent after a certain point. https://twitter.com/brekkie_rats/status/1749882821202661875 ## Ratatouille Although Lignier told the *NYT* that he doesn't think the rats "understood" their selfies, they kept on pushing the levers all the same and even did so after the sugar rewards became fewer and fewer. Sometimes, the rats — which the photographer named after himself and his brother Arthur — would even *ignore* the sugar, but kept pressing their selfie buttons all the same. To Lignier, the experiment presented an obvious parallel to humans' social media addictions. "Digital and social media companies use the same concept," the Frenchman told the newspaper, "to keep the attention of the viewer as long as possible." While this is far from the first time [animals have taken selfies](), having them do so inside a Skinner box seems novel. There's no indication that the rats quite grasped what they were doing, but there's certainly something curious going on with these French rodents, and like Remy, the titular rat from "[Ratatouille]()," we love them regardless. **More on animals:** [*Scientists Discover Dolphin With Thumbs*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()