What Nobody Is Telling You About Boiling Frogs

You know very well this example: if you put a frog in hot, boiling water, te frog will jump out straight away. Survival instincts will kick in instantly. But if you put a frog in normal water, which you then heat very slowly, until the boiling point, eventually the frog dies, because, lured by the slow unfolding of the events, it won’t be able to jump out anymore.

This is used to illustrate life threatening circumstances, like being stuck in abusive relationships, or social rights restrictions, when the toxic threshold is reached in a very, very slow, allegedly innocent, way. And it’s a very good example.

But I find it utterly incomplete and biased. Here’s why.

Simply Put: Because It Also Works The Other Way Around

Let me explain.

The only reason the slowly water boiling trick works is because it inhibits frog’s resistance. There is a certain threshold that activates the survival instinct, and if the frog is put directly into that stage, resistance will kick in instantly. But if we’re able to get the frog beyond that level in a way that will avoid this resistance, then we “made” it. We’re past the trigger, which wasn’t activated, because the situation changed almost imperceptibly.