I'm not sure this technically counts as an experiment.
You'd have to test with food for both the human and the rat. I'm sure they'd both find the food.
Also, don't we need to define what you mean by smarter? In this case, smart seems like a synonym for intelligent.
Do you mean more intelligent? The dictionary defines it as the ability to apply knowledge and skills.
It seems to me that the rat is acting on instinct, not using its intelligence. It's not skilled in pipe navigation, it's just instinctually running toward the food.
As an example: Wouldn't the test be slowly increasing the difficulty of getting the food, by adding tasks where both the rat and the human had to apply skills and knowledge to get the food? I'd be willing to guess the human would come out on top. Rats aren't very good at agriculture, robotics, and genetic engineering.
Wouldn't it be a completely different experiment for love and affection? You know, assuming humans and rats experience love and affection the same way.
In short, I promise that you are smarter than a rat.
Don't outthink it. The title is a clickbait and the rat experiment an excuse for a self-help text.
Exactly, the title is meant to grab attention so more people can learn from this lesson. I was just at a self-help conference and hope the lessons I learned can help others as well.
At the beginning of the post I described it as "how humans make decisions". For the purposes of the exercise, it was just how decisions are made.
Haha yes, I am sure your experiment would be much better at analyzing the "intelligence" of a human against a rat. Perhaps, a better question is "are you as willing to adapt to changing circumstances" (not "as capable" as I'm sure a logical person such as yourself is able to recognize that humans are far superior in adapting). At least this is the point I get from this exercise. I know many times that I was "unable" (really unwilling) to do what needed to be done because I was afraid of changing. I think asking the question as "smart" allows each individual to find their own meaning in the exercise... And allows people who have not made mistakes such as these, to disagree
Is that a better phrasing for you?