Hi Have to be a little careful ... apparently at least one of the early allusions was to a literal rat-race.
"Milton was at the period alluded to up to every sport; for, in the following March, he was steward of a rat race held at a public house in Shepherds Market, where four of these 'varmin,' decorated with different coloured ribands, were started for a sweepstakes round the club room before a host of sportsmen." So much for the "sensitivities" of literary types! One also wonders if there wasn't some conditioning (rewarding fast behavior) underlying the sport. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> Christopher Green <[email protected]> 01-Jul-12 1:36 PM >>> Looks like it might be even older than that, Paul. "Rat race" makes appearances in English as far back as the mid-1860s, but it has its first spike on popularity around 1902. http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=rat+race&year_start=1850&year_end=1920&corpus=0&smoothing=3 Chris --- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== On 2012-07-01, at 12:39 PM, Paul Brandon wrote: > > > > > > > The term appears to be somewhat older. > According to Wikipedia: > > "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat. * commonly attributed to Lily Tomlin in People magazine (26 Dec 1977)[1], but according to The Yale Book of Quotations (Shapiro & Epstein, p. 767), Rosalie Maggio in The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women states that William Sloane Coffin said "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat" as chaplain of Williams College or Yale University in the 1950s or 1960s. [2] " > > On Jul 1, 2012, at 9:55 AM, Louis E. Schmier wrote: > >> Michael, most people are wrong. The term originated with a cartoon strip called "Joe Rat." If I remember correctly, it was the work of a NC State student and appeared in the late '70s or early '80s in the school paper. Got to look it up. >> >> >> On Jul 1, 2012, at 10:46 AM, Michael Britt wrote: >> >>> Most people associate rats running in mazes with psychology, but aside from Tolman I don't know any other psychologists who used rats in their work. Skinner is mostly known or using pigeons (though I heard he might have used rats at one point). Any others? >>> >>> Michael > > Paul Brandon > Emeritus Professor of Psychology > Minnesota State University, Mankato > [email protected] > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=18738 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to leave-18738-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > > > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=18741 or send a blank email to leave-18741-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18743 or send a blank email to leave-18743-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
