In the 1950s, researcher Curt Richter threw some rats into buckets of water.
He wanted to see how long the rats would swim before giving up. Regular guy.
Ritcher’s rats were broken into two groups.
Group 1: Rats that had never been rescued before.
Group 2: Rats that had been previously rescued from the bucket, given a short rest, then dropped back in.
The first group of rats — the ones who had never been rescued before — swam for 10-15 minutes, then surrendered to the water.
The second group swam for 60 hours.
The rats that had been saved before believe they would be saved again. So they kept swimming.
And swimming.
And swimming.
Eat your heart out, Dory.
This is the clearest scientific illustration of hope I've ever seen.
It's not some "everything happens for a reason" platitude. It's not a sunset Instagram post with Brené Brown quotes superimposed over lens flare.
It's biology.
Hope physically changes what we're capable of.
For every challenge you've faced, every setback you've experienced, every obstacle that's appeared in your path — each one you've overcome has reconfigured your entire system for resilience.
And those moments of salvation — the times you've been pulled from the water — they aren't just feel-good memories. They're physiological reset buttons that expand your capacity to endure.
A lot of Adamant Insight blogs focus on the way we choose to perceive life. How the same life can look like a Van Gogh or a Picasso or macaroni art hung on the fridge, depending on how you frame it.
But sometimes, perception isn't flimsy. And in those times, you can lean on the concreteness of memory.
Nearly a decade after Curt Mengele Richter experimented with his rats, psychologist Martin Seligman coined the term learned helplessness to describe how we shut down when we believe our efforts are futile.
Basically: When you’re thrown in a bucket, you stop swimming even when escape is possible.
That’s the first group of rats.
But what about the opposite?
What about learned hopefulness?
What about the proof that every single one of us reading this has that endurance leads to not just survival, but progress?
The second group of rats had prior proof that endurance was worth it. So they endured.
Your track record for making it through your worst days is perfect.
Keep kicking.
But does this not mean one has to be saved once? To be pulled out of the water and have the "learned hopefulness?"
If one feels helpless, like the first group of rats, and can't think of a point in their life where they were saved, does this not mean they'll keep up with their "learned helplessness?"
I'm asking for a friend and I'd love to share this with the person when you respond.