Here we'll take a step towards making this thread Enlightened Members worthy real quick since there hasn't been a new post in that forum in over a month. This shit is true too.
The Experiment
So here's the experiment: We put a hamster in a cage with a button and a small window. The hamster learns to push the button, and depending on what the button does, we'll get different results.
Case 1: The Button Always Gives Food
If the button always gives food, then the hamster will press it a lot at first and then eventually get kind of bored with it. Essentially, the hamster learns that the food isn't going away anytime soon, so there's no urgency to keep pressing the button unless it gets hungry.
Case 2: The Button Always Gives a Shock
If the button always gives a shock, then the hamster will press it a few times, realize it's always giving a shock and leave it alone completely. This is pretty much what you would expect to happen in this case.
Case 3: The Button Intermittently Gives Food or a Shock
Things are getting more fun now. If the button randomly gives food or a shock, then the hamster will consistently keep coming back to it more often than in Case 1 (and obviously more than in Case 2). There's a sense of urgency there because it's not always getting food, and it keeps it excited to know what's going to happen next. But then...
Case 3b: The Button is Switched to Only Giving A Shock
After the hamster in Case 3 has gotten hooked on pressing the button, you switch it over so that it only ever gives a shock. You might expect that it will figure out what's going on and stop pressing the button (ala Case 2). However, that's not what happens. The hamster will literally shock itself to death from coming back to the button over and over again as much as possible.
