Irrational behaviour

I was reminded yesterday of a piece of psychological research which I read a decade ago. An animal psychologist placed a lot of laboratory rats in very congested conditions and studied their behaviour in comparison with the behaviour of a control group of rats which had plenty of space around them. The experimental group of rats in congested conditions quickly displayed irrational, neurotic behaviour. I was reminded of this research yesterday when I was making my way towards the exit of a parking bunker under a large suburban shopping complex. A motorist in a station wagon making a right turn inside the bunker pulled down hard on his steering wheel and swung across the front of my car with the result that his wagon was absolutely certain to collide with my right front headlight. I quickly checked my rear view mirror and found that I had another motorist right on my rear bumper so I had no room to reverse. I swung my steering wheel hard to the left with the result that I avoided a collision by a cat’s whisker.