Psychology Today | 30.09.2026 00:04
One day in the 1890s, the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov rang a bell to call his dogs for dinner—I like to imagine that this was standard for 19th-century dog owners, those classy rascals—and noticed that they had drenched themselves in their own slobber. He was about to roll his eyes with playful indignation when he realized that he hadn’t even brought the food out yet! If not the smell of the food, what were they slobbering over? He ran some tests. Turns out, it was the bell. More tests, and he found out that they would slobber over anything at all that fell into one of two categories: (a) food and (b) once-random things that they had come to associate with food. This doesn’t sound mind-blowing at first, but it is. Pats on the head, flicks to the ear, a song, a “Woop Woop Time to Eat”—repeatedly pair anything with food, and that thing will eventually be able to make dogs slobber, no food needed.
