ABSTRACT
In the mid-1960s experimental psychology received severe critiques on the subject of the validity of its experiments: experimental subjects conform most often to the expectations of their experimenters. Some biographical elements are in order. Jakob von Uexkull was an Estonian naturalist. After studies in biology, he took part in a comparative study of invertebrate physiology. American researchers have attempted tirelessly, in thousands of experiments, beginning with white rats, to study the most different kinds of animals in their relations to a maze. The rats respond to another question than the one the experimenter poses to them. And the experimenter can never suspect this would be the case, simply because he never took into consideration the point of view that the rat could have of the situation. The scientific method requires that the animals be chosen randomly, in order to constitute a random sample. But this random choice can turn out to be disastrous, for many reasons.
