A post on Facebook with 104k shares reads,

During a study at Harvard in the 1950s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water. On average they'd give up and sink after 15 minutes. But right before they gave up due to exhaustion, the researchers would pluck them out, dry them off, let them rest for a few minutes - and put them back in for a second round. In this second try - how long do you think they lasted? Remember - they had just swam until failure only a few short minutes ago... How long do you think? Another 15 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? No! 60 hours! That's not an error. That's right! 60 hours of swimming.

That seems like a rather insane claim to me. The idea that rats would only swim 1/240th their capability because they lacked hope of rescue.

Is this the right reading of the study? Did this ever happen?

A post on Facebook with 104k shares reads,

During a study at Harvard in the 1950s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water. On average they'd give up and sink after 15 minutes. But right before they gave up due to exhaustion, the researchers would pluck them out, dry them off, let them rest for a few minutes - and put them back in for a second round. In this second try - how long do you think they lasted? Remember - they had just swam [sic] until failure only a few short minutes ago... How long do you think? Another 15 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? No! 60 hours! That's not an error. That's right! 60 hours of swimming.

That seems like a rather insane claim to me. The idea that rats would only swim 1/240th their capability because they lacked hope of rescue.

Is this the right reading of the study? Did this ever happen?

A post on Facebook with 104k shares reads,

During a study at Harvard in the 1950s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water. On average they'd give up and sink after 15 minutes. But right before they gave up due to exhaustion, the researchers would pluck them out, dry them off, let them rest for a few minutes - and put them back in for a second round. In this second try - how long do you think they lasted? Remember - they had just swam until failure only a few short minutes ago... How long do you think? Another 15 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? No! 60 hours! That's not an error. That's right! 60 hours of swimming.

That seems like a rather insane claim to me. The idea that rats would only swim 1/240th their capability because they lacked hope of rescue.

Is this the right reading of the study? Did this ever happen?

A post on Facebook with 104k shares reads,

During a study at Harvard in the 1950s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water. On average they'd give up and sink after 15 minutes. But right before they gave up due to exhaustion, the researchers would pluck them out, dry them off, let them rest for a few minutes - and put them back in for a second round. In this second try - how long do you think they lasted? Remember - they had just swam until failure only a few short minutes ago... How long do you think? Another 15 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? No! 60 hours! That's not an error. That's right! 60 hours of swimming.

That seems like a rather insane claim to me. The idea that rats would only swim 1/240th their capability because they lacked hope of rescue.

Is this the right reading of the study? Did this ever happen?