Everyone dreams of a utopia where every person has plenty to eat, clean water to drink, and anything else required for human flourishing. Whether you think this can be done politically, socially, religiously, or just by improving upon yourself, however, it is important to think about what happens once you have accomplished your goals.

In a perfect world, would everyone live happily?

Well, if humans are anything like mice (and, at least in many ways, we are), this utopia may not be what people want.

Back in the 1970’s, researcher John B. Calhoun did a series of studies on mice where he provided them with food, water, safety, perfect temperature, and anything else their mouse hearts could desire. He published his findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, and that mouse utopia did not end well for those living in it.

To set up the experiment, Calhoun looked into what would make a perfect world for a mouse. He found that mice are pretty simple creatures (not unlike humans) and he designed a world that had 16 food hoppers, which were accessed by different tunnels. Each hopper could feed up to 25 mice at a time, and they were constantly filled with food, so nobody would go hungry. Just above the food hoppers were multiple water bottles that the mice could easily drink from, giving them a limitless source of clean fresh water.

On top of that, he set the temperature in the mouse universe to 20° C (68° F), which he was told is ideal for mice. Not only did he make sure that the environment was perfect for his furry friends, but he also picked out the mice to ensure optimal health. He sourced four breeding pairs from the National Institutes of Health breeding colony, taking steps to ensure they did not have any defects or diseases.

Of course, there were also no snakes, hawks, or other predators allowed in the area.

With all that work done to build the perfect mouse world, you would think that they would thrive. And they did, for a while.

At first, the mouse population doubled about every 55 days as the mice engaged in lots of breeding activities. They were breeding a lot more than they normally do in nature, presumably because they didn’t have to spend their time or energy finding food, water, and avoiding predators. Before long, the population had hit 620 mice, and by then the population growth slowed and was doubling about ever 145 days, which is still pretty good.

In addition, the mouse society started having issues. Mice broke off into various groups, but some mice couldn’t find anywhere that they fit in. In the study, Calhoun wrote:

“In the normal course of events in a natural ecological setting somewhat more young survive to maturity than are necessary to replace their dying or senescent established associates. The excess that find no social niches emigrate.”

In this mouse utopia, however, they had nowhere to emigrate to. So, they seemed to isolate themselves.

Calhoun explained:

“Males who failed withdrew physically and psychologically; they became very inactive and aggregated in large pools near the center of the floor of the universe. From this point on they no longer initiated interaction with their established associates, nor did their behavior elicit attack by territorial males. Even so, they became characterized by many wounds and much scar tissue as a result of attacks by other withdrawn males.”

Interestingly, many of the females who didn’t fit in well with other groups would go away from other mice and preen themselves so that their fur looked amazing. They, however, avoided mating. These females were dubbed ‘the beautiful ones’ in the study.

Even those mice who did well in groups, however, had problems. The most powerful males in a group became very aggressive, attacking other mice both within and outside their group for no clear reason. Fights would often break out that led to the death of many mice, and the survivors would even engage in cannibalism.

While the enclosure was designed to house 3000 mice without problems, the population of this group peaked at 2200 before it declined. Mice stopped breeding, and when they did breed, they would either neglect their offspring or actually kill their own children.

Eventually, the entire group of mice died out, making it clear that even in a world designed to be perfect, these mice couldn’t manage to thrive.

As humans continue to make the world around us easier in theory, it seems that we are doing much the same thing as the mice. Of course, we are far smarter and are not condemned to the same fate as the mice, but this study (and our own observation) seem to make one thing clear.

Living in a utopia is never as great as it sounds.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.