The Pike Effect
- Fred
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
A few weeks ago, I saw on Facebook Reels the story of The Pike Effect. What's the Pike Effect?
More than a century ago, German zoologist Karl Möbius conducted an interesting experiment. He placed an unsuspecting pike in a glass tank filled with water. He then divided the tank into two parts, by placing a glass panel in the middle of the tank. Thereupon the curious biologist placed some smaller fish in the tank. The pike probably thought it was having a field day. What the poor animal didn’t notice however, was the glass barrier in between its own part of the tank and the corner filled with juicy prey.
"Every time the pike would launch itself at a tasty little fish, it would painfully crash into the barrier. The pike would keep trying and kept having painful encounters with the glass barrier. After many failed attempts (and presumably with a very sore nose) the pike ceased its attacks. It had ‘learned’ attacking the small fish was futile. Worse, it now associated attacking the little fishes with pain.
By this time, Möbius pulled out the barrier. Although there now was nothing left to stop the pike from filling its belly, it would keep ignoring the frolicking fish. Even though the reason to remain inactive was gone, the predatory fish kept acting on it, or rather not acting on it. Möbius had mercy on the pike and fed it. Other researchers that repeated the experiment were less lenient. They stood by while the once mighty predator starved to death…"
Now, first of all, that's a very profound experiment, but after thinking about it for a few minutes, I had a lot of questions.
The entertainer in question was a low-level musician, either a rapper or a Latin artist. I had never heard of the musician before and struggled to see the correlation between the Pike and a musician in his early 20's. Is the message, "don't give up....until you're 23?"
But then I wanted to know more about the original study.
So I looked up Karl Mobius, and that part of the story is real. Well, insomuch as Mobius was a very distinguished zoologist at the turn of the last century. But from multiple reputable sources, Mobius' key contributions to science were in the study of oysters, not as an experimental scientist.
There are no official references connecting Mobius to the Pike Effect. No links to the study at Humboldt University of Berlin.
Now I'm very familiar with the Science behind Pavlov's Dog.
I am also very familiar with the Parable of the Scorpion and the Frog.
I'm not sure that the Pike Effect isn't really fiction from a creative motivational speaker, like a capitalist Creepy Pasta. Then the story got picked up by other, more lazy, motivational speakers who didn't check the original citations.
Why did the story stick with me so much? I consider myself fairly well-read, if true, I find it hard to believe that this "study" evaded me for 55 years of my life.
Why so jaded? A few months back, I came across The Russian Sleep Experiment on streaming. Then I got really confused, I thought the Russian Sleep Study really happened back in the 1940's. Apparently that's not true, it was a Creepy Pasta from 2012 that crossed into the public consciousness.
Apparently there's 3 different movies:
And multiple books (from AI):
The Russian Sleep Experiment by Holly Ice & K.J. Charles (2015): A novella exploring the psychological decay of four political prisoners.
The Sleep Experiment by Jeremy Bates (2018): A popular thriller novel that retells the urban legend with added depth and tension.
50 Horror Stories Based On The Russian Sleep Experiment (2023): An anthology exploring various tales related to the premise.
The Awakened Nightmare - The Russian Sleep Experiment (eBook): A retelling of the, often KGB-focused, horror.
Even as I type this, I'm still not entirely convinced the Russian Sleep Experiment didn't really happen.
And why am I so obsessed with a stupid Pike in a fish tank?
Because both stories are symbolic of today's world of things that sound true, but aren't.
And crazy things that shouldn't be true....