Don't Win before Success and Don't Lose Before Failure| the shark and fish experiment | Mind-Set Short Story | EdgeZaroo

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“In a research experiment, a marine biologist placed a shark in a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

As you would have thought, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacking and eating the small fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate compartments. She placed a shark on one side of the fiberglass and a bait fish on the other.

Again, the shark attacked quickly. This time, however, the shark jumped into the fiberglass divider and bounced. Undoubtedly, the shark had no use repeating this behavior every few minutes. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second division. Eventually, an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

The experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark became less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, eventually causing the shark to get tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and stop attacking completely.

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark did not attack. The shark is trained to believe that there is a barrier between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish can swim wherever they want, without harm. ”