Reduction of intraspecies aggression in rats by positive reinforcement of incompatible behaviors.

The team worked with pairs of rats in a small cage. Each pair got short electric shocks that normally make rats attack each other.

After each shock the researchers gave food to the rat that did NOT fight. They repeated this many times and then stopped to see if fighting returned.

The design is called ABAB: baseline, treatment, back to baseline, treatment again.

When food came for calm behavior the chance of fighting dropped sharply. The same drop happened every time the food program returned.

Even under painful shocks the rats chose food over fighting once the lesson was clear.

Barlow et al. (2015) later showed the same idea works in a shelter. Dogs that barked and jumped stopped when staff gave treats for quiet standing.

Cohen (1975) found that rats housed together for 28 days also fought less after shocks. Housing helps, but teaching a food-rewarded replacement skill works faster.

Navarick et al. (1972) noted that shocked rats sometimes bite the metal lever instead of the other rat. Their paper warns us to watch what we measure, but it does not clash with the new finding — it just shows another form of shock-elicited aggression.

You can cut aggression by rewarding any calm behavior that cannot happen at the same time as the problem act. The reward does not have to be big or special; food, toys, or even brief social praise can work. Try it next time a client hits during demands: stop the task, wait two seconds of calm hands, then hand a favorite snack and resume. The rat data say the effect will show up fast and return if you stop, so keep the plan in place.