The Personalities of Pigeons and Criminals

Harvard buildings house quite a few unusual experiments. But if you take a trip to the seventh floor of the William James building you will find an experiment that seems to belong near some statue in a square rather than Harvard's psychology research labs. As you pass through the hallway door, clicking noises and a strange odor will lure you to an experimental lab that Pierce Professor of Psychology Richard J. Herrnstein has made into the permanent residence for more than 20 pigeons. These birds, however, are not ordinary pets, nor are they statue pigeons; rather, they are part of Herrnstein's ongoing psychological experiments.

In his research with pigeons, Herrnstein ponders such questions as: What does a simpleminded animal, like a pigeon possess to distinguish between a tree and a person that a complicated machine, like a computer, does not? What secret of classification is mother nature hiding and, if found, could we apply that discovery to create computers that could detect the difference between addresses in a post office?

Herrnstein speculates that perhaps nature's way is the only way. Perhaps we will understand a bird's sense of recognition, but we will have to adapt the new discovery to an application that man can create. For example, Herrnstein explains Icarus was unsuccessful in imitating exactly how a bird flies so when man learned how birds fly, he eventually adapted the discovery to a machine he could create which looked somewhat like a bird, but by no means had wings that flapped.

Herrnstein's research delves into comparative cognition. His work is "comparative" because he applies findings from his animal research to human behavior. As a cognitist, he is interested in internal thought processes. But Herrnstein does not reject behavioral psychology and investigates as well the relationship between the environment of a person or animal and its observable behavior. Herrnstein calls himself eclectic: "I am a little bit of behaviorist and cognitist, but my experiments are more inclined towards those of a behaviorist."

Herrnstein puts some of his theories and experiments into practice in Social Analysis 12. "Crime and Human Nature," with James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government. Herrnstein's goal in the course is to look at crime at every level from the microscopic thoughts of an individual to view-points as globally social as possible. "At the end of the course we conclude that a person's individual behavior does say something about their actions. Sooner or later a decision to commit a crime boils down to an individual's choice and their behavior on that choice."

During his more than 13 years at Harvard. Herrnstein has researched not only pigeon's cognitive abilities but has stirred up heated controversy with some of his behavioral research. He has been picketed and protested because of the fine line people draw between behavioral research, genetics and racism.

Today, "some students complain he tends to take too much of an individual approach to crime," says Trevor W. Nagel a section leader in Social Analysis 12. More important than individual behavior that would induce a person to commit a crime, the students feel that more of an emphasis should be placed on a macrosociological perspective." Herrnstein says students who say he emphasized individual behavior obviously have not yet finished all the required reading.

Nagel continues however that "Herrnstein is an admirable professor because he hasn't strayed from taking on controversial topics. Overall, fewer people than I expected complained about the issue of crime's relation to race.

Fewer complaints that expected was not the case in the Spring of 1972, however. In September 1971. Herrnstein published an article in Atlantic Monthly magazine that provoked many protests the following spring by the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) and the Undergraduate Action Group (UAG). The article said that assuming that variations of IQ are determined by genetic variations and that success in society and rising to the top of the hierarchy depends on IQ, then one can conclude, says Herrnstein, that the more one removes artificial social barriers to success then the more getting to the top depends on genetic.

SDS said Herrnstein was "propagating racist theories on intelligence and unemployment" and the following months saw protests and pickets.

Today Herrnstein says "There is a hush in the room when I talk about race related issues, but I'm not as aware of students' anger in this matter as in the past. In fact, one of the biggest compliments I get is on how I handle those issues. Students appreciate that I tackle the controversies." But he adds that he still stands behind his conclusions and that the article was blown out of proportion.

"People don't like seeing that nature is more malleable than social perfection," says Wilson. "Nowadays, the issue is no longer controversial because of the accumulation of awareness. People are more satisfied with facing the fact that some differences in human tendencies are based on society and environment while others are based on plain heredity."