Usually, covering the auto news beat here at FuelArc News involves sorting out the signal from the noise.
Reading endless posts of hoodrats doing hoodrat things in their off-road rigs, trying to figure out which news out of China’s auto industry is true and which is misinformation, or sorting out which bot’s claim on Twitter is the least false… We have our finger on the pulse of the automotive internet, all so you don’t have to.
Sometimes, though, we cover peer-reviewed scientific articles! This may be our most academically rigorous coverage yet.
Like this headline:
“Rats love driving tiny cars, even when they don’t get treats”
Some enterprising scientist at the University of Richmond devised a test to see if rats enjoy driving cars. Turns out, they do.
The kicker: you train the rats to drive a car by giving them treats.
What happens when you stop giving them treats?
They still like to drive their tiny little rat cars.
“Do you like my… rat rod?” – Image from the news desk at University of Richmond.
So rats drive cars because 4-wheeling is fun. Plus, driving relaxes them! Their metabolites for stress hormones were decreased, meaning that not only do rats drive, but they also joy-ride.
Humans: Driving Stresses Your Average Human Out
Now, this begs the question: if it is a scientifically accurate statement to say “rats enjoy driving cars,” what about us knuckledraggers?
Well, bad news, folks: the literature review is in, and you already know the results.
The National Institute of Health conducted an in-depth review of the existing science up to 2017, and combing through some 27,000+ sources, they can safely state that “driving for long hours elicits a stress response over an extended period of time” in humans.
So, what’s good, my fellow drive-enjoying weirdos? We may just be different, like mom said. We might like the way that stress tastes, like adrenaline junkies everywhere. But at least we’re pretty normal when compared to lab rats joy-riding in their tiny little rat-rods.
