#3: Beyond the Cage

Rodents, relationships, and regulation

Process check-in:

Alright, week three! I’m a seasoned writer now, right? 😬

Thanks to each of you for subscribing, we’re now at 67 wonderful readers! Only 33 away from 100 (cue happy dance 🕺)

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If you’re just tuning in from home (that’s a pre-internet joke for dinosaurs like me), we’re on our third weekly edition. This week, we’re diving into some juicy, nerdy science.

*grabs beverage* Here goes:

Once upon a time, in a dimly lit psychology lab, there was a young, friendly prairie vole (which is basically a cuter, more social lab rat). This prairie vole, who we’ll call Tim, scurried restlessly in a dark and dreary cage as part of a study on anxiety.

Tim’s wife, meanwhile, blissfully forgot about her husband as she enjoyed a complimentary five-star meal of water and lettuce.

Tim’s neighbors, Rob and Tina Brown, had also volunteered for the study. Rob was in a tight cage like Tim’s, but Tina was placed nearby in a separate pod, providing her husband with invisible emotional support.

Here’s the crazy thing:

After an hour in their cages, Tim and Rob were each sent to prairie vole playgrounds. Rob ran around and enjoyed the slide, swings, and carousel. Tim, on the other hand, huddled inside near the vending machine, anxiously biting his nails.

And here’s the even crazier thing (unhinged nerd-alert):

After the experiment, scans of Tim’s brain showed a flood of cortisol, the brain’s stress hormone, along with other anxiety-related changes.

And Rob? His brain looked like he’d just come from an afternoon on the beach. Even though he was stuck in a cage just like Tim’s, having Tina nearby successfully kept his brain from going into full-blown panic mode.

The takeaway:

The social buffering effect has been replicated across studies and shows that being near people we like, even just hearing their voice, can effectively reduce stress.

Anonymous said it best: “Companionship lightens the load.”

And while it’s kind of intuitive, we tend to forget this. We stand anxiously near the metaphorical vending machine, chewing our fingernails, trying to power through on our own.

So next time you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, pick up the phone and call Tina… or whoever your rodents people are.

Until next time,

Eli

P.S. My academically rigorous wife called me out last week for being “too fluffy.” *swallows pride* Uber-nerds can read the full study here.

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Disclaimer: While the science is highly credible, details of the above may be embellished and/or made up for the purposes of keeping this fun for the readers. And the author.

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Note from the editor (i.e., me at my laptop):

Thank you so much for reading and joining along on this journey!

Comments? Questions? Reactions? Please feel free to comment online or reply to this email — I welcome any and all responses.

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I’m loving these section breaks. Hmm, this is a new (for me) share feature, let’s see if it works…?