Description

How the mouse utopia went from experiment to cultural metaphor: pop culture, science fiction and internet memes.

Teaser

From sci-fi novels to TikTok memes, Universe 25 has been inspiring images of collapse for decades. What does that say about our culture?

Overview

An overview of the topic 'Universe 25' can be found here.

Universe 25 in pop culture

Read the detailed main article first https://www.praxis-psychologie-berlin.de/wikiblog/articles/das-universe-25-experiment-und-ein-tragisches-ende-im-maeuseparadies

or the overview

Universe 25: Mouse utopia, social collapse, real lessons to understand the structure, phases and findings of the experiment. This feature article explains how Universe 25 conveys collapse in social discourse, art, memes and pop culture.

Introduction: From laboratory to legend

John B. Calhoun's mouse experiment Universe 25 was a scientific project – and yet it shaped images, stories and metaphors. Within a few years, the "behavioural sink" made a career for itself in newspapers, books, films and internet forums. The image of the overcrowded cage in which social structures break down fascinated creative minds and commentators alike. Over the decades, Universe 25 evolved from a niche experiment into a pop culture myth. This article traces its footsteps in literature, film, music and memes.

1. Initial reception in the 1970s

The publication of Calhoun's research in popular science magazines such as Scientific American and the coining of the term "behavioural sink" generated an immediate response. Journalists turned the experiment into a warning report about "the dangerous consequences of overpopulation". In the 1970s, discussions about resource scarcity (Club of Rome), environmental destruction and urbanisation created a climate in which Universe 25 served as a symbol. News magazines illustrated articles about urban density stress with images from Calhoun's cages. This marked the beginning of the study's transformation into a metaphorical narrative.

Media reflex

Calhoun himself emphasised that it was the lack of structures in the enclosure – not the number of animals – that triggered the catastrophe. But headlines established a mechanical connection. This simplification paved the way for fictional interpretations that found their way into science fiction and cultural criticism.

2. Science fiction and apocalyptic images

The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of dystopian stories. Authors, directors and comic book writers took up the motif of overcrowded, brutalised living spaces.

"The Rats of NIMH" and the secret laboratories

The children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971) by Robert C. O'Brien tells the story of laboratory rats that are tortured and trained in a mental health institute (NIMH) and eventually break out. O'Brien was familiar with Calhoun's experiments, and the parallels are obvious: intelligent rodents living in cages, organising themselves and seeking freedom. The film adaptation The Secret of NIMH (1982) by Don Bluth made the " " motif of a "rat utopia" accessible to a wide audience. The rats build an underground city where they read, write and dream. Although the story ends on a hopeful note, its starting point remains the idea of animal experimentation.

Skyscrapers as substitute cages

In J. G. Ballard's novel High-Rise (1975), life in a futuristic residential tower escalates into anarchic violence. Residents of different floors wage open war; supplies, hygiene and social norms collapse. Ballard turns his characters into "mice in an overcrowded cage". The novel plays on the same fears as Calhoun's work: lack of retreat, power games, violence. The 2015 film adaptation reinforced these parallels visually.

Other apocalyptic images

Films such as Soylent Green (1973), Blade Runner (1982) and later Judge Dredd (1995) show cities with overwhelming crowds of people in which social order is fragile. While these works do not directly reference Universe 25, they draw on the same cultural reservoir: the fear of total collapse when civilisation lives in confinement.

3. Universe 25 in literature and music

Literary reflections

Authors use Universe 25 as a metaphor in essays, novels and poems. In non-fiction books on cultural criticism, the mouse utopia appears to question neoliberal lifestyles, hedonism and consumer culture.

• In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Jeremy Rifkin writes about "digital cages" that, like Calhoun's enclosure, replace social contact with algorithms.

• In essays by the Bertelsmann Foundation on social cohesion, the "mouse collapse" is used as a warning against social echo chambers on the internet.

• In poetry collections, Universe 25 appears as a symbol of isolation; poets describe cages as a metaphor for neoliberalism and the expectation of permanent growth.

Music and performance

Musicians rarely take up the theme, but some works make reference to it. The industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten uses images of overcrowded cities in concerts and talks about Calhoun in interviews. Hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco mentions "mouse utopia" in a song in which he deals with consumer criticism. In performance art, installations featuring cages or nesting boxes symbolise the confines of urban living environments. In 2019, an exhibition at Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt featured a walk-in installation with dense, labyrinthine corridors inspired by Calhoun's cages – as a commentary on life in the big city.

4. Internet memes and social media

Birth of a meme

In the digital age, Universe 25 has begun a second career as a meme. Since around 2017, users on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, TikTok and Facebook have been sharing images of mice with captions such as "This is your future city". Memes relate the experiment to politics, economics or lifestyle.

• Political commentators refer to Universe 25 in blogs and tweets to back up their views on birth rates, immigration or consumer society.

• Prepper and survival forums use the experiment to predict social collapse if resources are distributed unfairly.

• Animal rights organisations share videos from the experiment and emphasise the suffering of the mice to raise awareness of ethical research.

Many of these posts reduce Calhoun's complex findings to simple slogans. The impact of the meme is amplified by repetition: every person who shares the image contributes to the consensus that overpopulation inevitably leads to apocalypse.

Criticism and debunking

In response, meme campaigns have emerged that poke fun at the simplistic narrative: images of orderly, densely populated cities such as Singapore, Tokyo or Barcelona are captioned with the words "This is Universe 25 in real life" – accompanied by happy residents and clean streets. Scientific communities counter the myths with facts and links to explanatory texts and videos, including our own article Myths and Misconceptions About Universe 25.

Viral videos and podcasts

YouTube and podcast platforms have also discovered Universe 25. An episode of the 2024 series Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, available on podcast platforms, is dedicated to the topic and discusses its historical background. YouTube channels such as Down the Rabbit Hole by Fredrik Knudsen provide detailed videos about mouse utopias and their misinterpretations. These posts offer nuanced perspectives and reach millions of views.

5. Impact on social discourse

Universe 25 has long been more than a scientific curiosity. Its pop culture presence influences how people think about urbanisation, demographics and social structures.

Political tool

Right-wing populist groups use the narrative to stir up fears of "foreign infiltration" and "mass immigration." They claim that Calhoun proved that a society inevitably collapses once it reaches a certain size and advocate birth control or radical immigration restrictions. This argument ignores the methodological and ethical weaknesses of the experiment and fails to recognise the role of social structures.

Progressive voices, on the other hand, take Universe 25 as a warning: they argue that a lack of social infrastructure, unequal distribution of resources and a lack of political participation lead to problems – not the number of people. In debates about urban development, planning initiatives refer to the experiment to emphasise the importance of green spaces, community spaces and affordable housing.

Education and science communication

Schools and universities are incorporating Universe 25 into their curricula to promote discussions about ethics, urban sociology and scientific understanding. The experiment's pop culture status makes it an ideal introduction to a critical examination of animal research and urbanity. Museums and science centres are organising exhibitions that reconstruct Calhoun's enclosure and encourage visitors to think about what makes a good living environment and how we can design cities that are fair and liveable.

6. Conclusion: myth, mirror, warning

Universe 25 has long since abandoned its original role as a behavioural science experiment and has become a cultural phenomenon. In science fiction, it serves as an image for the collapse of civilisational structures, in literature as a metaphor for confinement and consumerism, and in music and performance art as a symbol of social cages. Online, the experiment is spreading in memes and viral posts – sometimes as a prophecy of doom, sometimes as an ironic warning.

The broad reception shows how powerful simple stories can be. Anyone who quotes the experiment without explaining the context contributes to the creation of myths. Our guideline is therefore:

• Differentiated communication: Complex social phenomena cannot be reduced to animal experiments. The media and artists have a responsibility to provide context.

• Reflect on urban lifestyles: Pop culture images encourage us to think about housing, community and sustainability. Films, books and songs that address Universe 25 can spark debate.

• Keeping ethics in mind: The portrayal of animal experiments in art and the media should take animal welfare into account. Exhibitions or performances featuring Calhoun's mice serve as a catalyst for ethical discussions.

In this way, Universe 25 is not just used as a spectre, but as a catalyst for change. Art and pop culture have the power to make people think and develop social visions. The mouse utopia reminds us that structures, community and responsibility determine the state of our cities and our culture.

Read more

• Universe 25 – The mouse utopia that turned into a nightmare – background article with structure and phases.

• Myths and misunderstandings about Universe 25 – false narratives and their counterarguments.

• Methodological criticism of Universe 25 – how design and variables influenced the outcome.

• Transferability to humans? – Differences between rodents and humans.

• Housing density and social cohesion – how density, space and community interact.

• Universe 25 in pop culture – the experiment as a cultural metaphor.

• Parallels to psychological classics – comparison with other experiments (Stanford Prison, Marshmallow Test, Jane Elliott, Little Albert, Coffee Experiment).

• Utopias and dystopias – Universe 25 in the mirror of the history of ideas – lessons from dreams and nightmares.

• Ethics of behavioural research – moral questions in experiments with animals.

Subscribers to our newsletter will also receive the PDF dossier "Universe 25 without myth" with further reading and analysis.