Say cheese! Artist trained two rats to take selfies... and they didn't want to stop

An artist taught rats how to take selfies through positive reinforcmentThe rats were give a dose of sugar when they pushed a small shutter buttonThe rats stopped taking the sugar, but got the same feeling when pushingREAD MORE: Social media addicts should be offered therapy 

It turns out that humans are not the only mammals addicted to snapping selfies.

A French artist spent two months training rats to push a small shutter button of a camera facing directly toward them in a photo booth-like machine – find the rodents pushed it a few hundred times.

The experiment pulled inspiration from famed psychologist Dr Burrhus Frederic Skinner, who used positive reinforcement in teaching rats to press a lever inside a ‘Skinner box’ – and Augustin Lignier replicated the study, but with selfies.

‘I was trying to understand how experiments from the 50s could influence behavior as we have social media and smartphones, Lingnier told DailyMail.com.

Inspired by Skinner’s box, Lignier built a towered structure with a camera at the top and a mechanism that released a small dose of sugar every time the rat pushed the shutter.

‘At one point the rats stopped taking the sugar,’ said the artist, while explaining the animals realized they got the same dopamine just by pushing the button and just snapped playful pictures.

A French artist spent two months training rats to push a small shutter button of a camera facing directly toward them in a photo booth-like machine

This rat pushed it a few hundred times – the most out of the two rodents

The revised Skinner’s Box featured a camera, flashlight, computer hard drive and a sugar dispensary attached to a wheel, along with food and water.

Construction of the transparent box took about two months, which also included testing and adjusting the structure.

Lignier said the rats also damaged the structure during training and he had to make several repairs.

Then he went to work teaching the rats to take selfies by pushing the small button – training was done for a few hours a day.

The rats were then taken out of the box for about a week and then put back inside to do the process over again.

The artist initially had a screen in front to show the animals their pictures, but removed it after they did not respond to the images.

‘They didn’t react because they don’t pass the mirror tests,’ Lignier.

He observed the rats push the button every half a minute further along in the experiment.

Augustin Lignier used a  Skinner’s box, which was developed by a famed psychologist to test animal behavior. The revised Skinner’s Box featured a camera, flashlight, computer hard drive and a sugar dispensary attached to a wheel, along with food and water

Lignier built a towered structure with a camera at the top and a mechanism that released a small dose of sugar every time the rat pushed the shutter

‘At one point the rats stopped taking the sugar,’ said the artist, while explaining the animals realized they got the same dopamine just by pushing the button

However, Lignier also found that the multi-colored rat pushed the button more than the white one – even after it stopped taking the sugar.

Skinner, a renowned American psychologist and behaviorist, conducted several experiments with rats throughout his career, particularly focusing on operant conditioning.

His famed Skinner box, created in the 1930s, allowed him to study animals in controlled environments.

About 20 years after the structure was built, Skinner placed rats inside a chamber equipped with a lever and a food dispenser.

The lever, when pressed by the rat, would release a food pellet. Skinner observed how rats learned to associate pressing the lever with obtaining food, leading to an increase in lever-pressing behavior.

Things like slot machines used parts of the experiment to keep people playing and spending money – and the same goes for social media companies to keep users scrolling, liking and commenting.

Selfie Rats deploys a three-stages experiment with a group of rodents. Trained with a sugar distribution system connected to a camera, a group of rats produces images of themselves by interacting with the photographic apparatus

At first driven by the trained compulsion to eat sugar, they eventually just playfully snap pictures

Lignier said he was trying to understand how experiment from the 50s could influence behavior as we have social media and smartphones

Social media addiction has become prevalent in our society, with the National Addiction Center recognizing it as a similar behavioral addiction.

Psychologists estimate that upwards of five to 10 percent of Americans suffer from social media addiction that can be equated to any other substance abuse disorder.

‘Studies have shown that the constant stream of retweets, likes, and shares from these sites cause the brain’s reward area to trigger the same kind of chemical reaction seen with drugs like Cocaine,’ the Addiction Center said.

‘In fact, neuroscientists have compared social media interaction to a syringe of dopamine being injected straight into the system.’

Lignier compared the results to how humans are attached to their phones in the digital age.

The difference is that social media platforms use likes and comments to trigger the same response the rat had when it received a dose of sugar, and it keeps people coming back for more.

Likewise, sugar has been linked to dopamine and several studies claim it is just as addictive as drugs like cocaine and heroin, according to the Wellness Retreat Recovery Center, making it the ideal substance to trigger the same reaction to the rat’s selfies.

The artist said humans are shaped to push a button and his experiment showed rats are the same way

The rats spent a few hours a day in the box, then taken out for a week and put back inside do the process over again

The Skinner box showed that the triggered dopamine response is what keeps us coming back to our social media for more, it’s what compels us to share a photo of the dinner we made or the concert we attended.

‘Social media is designed to hook our brains, and teens are especially susceptible to its addictiveness,’ Nancy DeAngelis, CRNP, Director of Behavioral Health, Jefferson Health – Abington said in a Jefferson Health article.

‘The overuse of social media can actually rewire a young child or teen’s brain to constantly seek out immediate gratification, leading to obsessive, compulsive and addictive behaviors.’