# Why human guinea pig instead of human rat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318 "2005-06-01T03:07:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/1 "2005-06-01T03:07:11Z")
Why is the phrase human guinea pig instead of human rat? Rats are much more common in lab experiments than guinea pigs. I’m shocked - I can’t find anyone previously asking this question on the board nor Cecil answering it. Surely I’m not the first to wonder? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/2 "2005-06-01T03:09:09Z")
I’d guess because “rat” has so many _other_ connotations as well. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/3 "2005-06-01T03:53:07Z")
When I was a “test subject” we called ourselves “lab rats.” ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/4 "2005-06-01T07:21:29Z")
Cecil addressed the subject in this column: [Are guinea pigs ever used as guinea pigs?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/011012.html) > [@](#): > > Still, you have to wonder how guinea pigs became the proverbial test animal when they’re seldom used for that purpose. The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary for guinea pig in the sense of experimental subject is from George Bernard Shaw in 1913: “The folly . . . which sees in the child nothing more than the vivisector sees in a guinea pig: something to experiment on.” Animal experiments in Shaw’s day were much less sophisticated than they are now, and one supposes guinea pigs comprised a larger portion of the experimental animal population. Or possibly Shaw just thought “guinea pig” sounded more genteel than “lab rat.” ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/5 "2005-06-01T14:12:03Z")
Thanks **Loopus** , I must have skipped right over that! ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/6 "2005-06-01T18:59:04Z")
In China, the idiom for test subjects is “white mice.” ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-human-guinea-pig-instead-of-human-rat/306318/7 "2005-06-01T19:37:27Z")
> [@Mirror Image egamI rorriM](#): > > In China, the idiom for test subjects is “white **mice**.” Damn! What did I just order with my Mu Shu Chicken??