There’s a little parable going around about frogs. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. If you put him in a pot of cold water, and then gradually turn up the heat, he’ll stay in it until he cooks. This is supposed to illustrate how people can allow themselves to get into a bad situation a little at a time.
Is this total fiction, or is there a basis in truth?
I don’t know if this is true - a teacher once told us this story too.
I believe it has something to do with frogs being cold - blooded - If you warm them up slowly, their body temperature increases steadily, so the difference between this and the hot water is always relatively low. They therefore don’t percieve the water as hot.
Maybe someone who has tried it!!! could verify…
One of my teachers at college told me the best way to cook a lobster was to put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat. This grossed out most of the class, his reply was that the meat came out better and the lobster didn’t have a clue of what was going on.
That’d be a great way to make a tough lobster, and they oughtta be split and broiled anyway.
Hmmm. We have frogs in my pond.
Man oh man, it better be true. I used that anecdote in my book.
My mom told me that when I was about sixteen and getting mixed up in the ‘skater crowd’. Personally, as a gal who’s caught a lot of frogs and played wit’em, I’d say a frog will jump out of anywhere, because they like to keep it moving.
jarbaby
Site on frog boiling.
Of course I have no idea if the above is real but there is a Doug Melton in existence at Harvard.
Don’t think you’re original if you did. Hector MacDonald opened his novel, The Mind Game (2001) with the same device.
If you can make the frog comfortable enough in a pot of water that it won’t jump out in the first place which would be the biggest challenge (give it a rock or some moss to hide around), then there is some basis for the line, if you raise the heat slow enough. They’re not that bright… but overheating isn’t really a failing in intellengence. The frog will get a little uncomfortable, but… it’s not that bad. Repeat this scenario several times over, and soon the frog will come to a point where even though it realizes it better get out, it’s too late. It’s a matter of waiting a little too long and crossing the line of no return as opposed to blind ignorance. Humans do the exact same thing all the time - ever heard of heat stroke?
“Gee it’s hot out, but it’s so nice and sunny today… I’m starting to sweat, but I gotta work on my tan for a couple hours more… I don’t have any water to drink but the wind cools me down a bit… I’m use to the heat now, let’s play frisby… Hello, 911?”