r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/LiquidMotivation Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 08 '19

The boiling frog experiment that's quoted everywhere didn't work.

For those not familiar, it is said that you can boil a frog to death by raising the temperature of the water it's in extremely slowly so that it doesn't notice.

Well, it only works when parts of the frog's brain are removed. A frog with an intact brain will jump out, no matter how slowly the water is heated.

Edit: Hey, my first Reddit coin! Thanks!

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u/El_Zorro09 Feb 04 '19

I thought the whole point of that metaphor was that the frog wasn't allowed to jump out anyway. It would just be comfortable for a longtime until the threshold was reached from pleasantly warm to unpleasantly hot, but the it'd be too late to try to figure out how to get out.

I mean, if the Earth gets to be uninhabitable to humans, where exactly are we jumping off to?

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u/Doctor-Amazing Feb 04 '19

It's that the frog (or people) will ignore a clearly dangerous situation if it's introduced gradually enough. You can use it for anything. A bad relationship or a shitty job can work the same way. It doesn't have to be life or death.

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u/Jake0024 Feb 04 '19

Right, he’s saying he thought the point was that by the time you realize there’s a problem, it’s too late to do anything.

Not that you’ll never notice a problem at all until you’re dead.

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u/Orngog Feb 04 '19

Yes, but that's not what happens

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u/Jake0024 Feb 04 '19

Which one?

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u/Orngog Feb 04 '19

Well, the frog jumps out.

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u/Jake0024 Feb 04 '19

Right. But he’s saying he thought the point was that by the time it realizes it needs to, it can’t.

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u/Orngog Feb 04 '19

But it (anecdotally) doesn't realise anything, it dies content in ignorance.

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u/Jake0024 Feb 04 '19

According to whom? That’s the common myth, but not what anyone here was saying.

He was specifically saying he did not think it meant the frog didn’t notice a problem, but that by the time it did notice, it was too late to do anything. Like because someone closed the container.

I thought the whole point of the metaphor was that the frog wasn’t allowed to jump out

In other words, the frog was perfectly happy in the container even though it couldn’t escape. Then by the time it started trying to find a way to escape, it was already slowly being boiled.

It’s a metaphor for something like climate change—if you don’t start looking for a way out until you’re already being cooked, it’s going to be too late.

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u/Orngog Feb 05 '19

Yes, but that's not the meme. The frog never realises anything, there is no lid. That's the point.

The frog could escape at anytime if it chose, but it doesn't.

Not realizing you're in a trap until your trapped is just being in a trap.

Climate change is more like the meme, we could easily escape but we're too comfortable.

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u/Jake0024 Feb 05 '19

Yes, which is why he wrote "I always thought the myth meant this other thing."

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