![]() ![]() Her conclusion: “Take a rabbit with an unhealthy lifestyle. Kelli Harding published a book titled The Rabbit Effect that takes its name from the experiment. Years later the findings of this experiment still seem influential in the medical community. The scientists published the results of this study in the prestigious journal Science. When they analyzed the results, the same thing happened! The rabbits under the care of the loving researcher had significantly higher health outcomes. So they repeated the experiment-this time tightly controlling for every other variable. She gave them love!Īt first glance, it seemed unlikely that this could be the reason for the dramatic difference, but the research team could see no other possibility. She did more than simply give the rabbits food. But, as one scientist reported, “she was an unusually kind and caring individual.” When she fed the rabbits, “she talked to them, cuddled and petted them. She fed the rabbits the same food as everyone else. Was it possible that researchers had done something to influence the results? As they pursued this, they discovered that every rabbit with fewer fatty deposits had been under the care of one researcher. The scientists struggled to understand this unexpected outcome!Įventually, they turned their attention to the research staff. They each received equal amounts of the same food.ĭid the results invalidate the study? Were there flaws in the experiment design? How could this be? The rabbits were all the same breed from New Zealand, from a virtually identical gene pool. To scientists, results like this can cause lost sleep. It appeared as though they were looking at two different groups of rabbits. Although all of the rabbits had a buildup, one group surprisingly had as much as 60 percent less than the others. Yet this was not all! Researchers had discovered something that made little sense. ![]() Over several months, they fed a control group of rabbits a high-fat diet and monitored their blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol.Īs expected, many of the rabbits showed a buildup of fatty deposits on the inside of their arteries. In the 1970s, researchers set up an experiment to examine the effects of diet on heart health. Today, let me share a discovery that happened because of a sample group of rabbits. Isn’t it fascinating that significant scientific discoveries are sometimes inspired by events as simple as an apple falling from a tree? ![]()
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