[frangolino]

> That said, it's really more of an art project than anything to do with science as the article makes it clear the rats were trained to push buttons to get sugar, the selfies were just artistic flourish to make a (fairly overt) point.

according to the article, this was just to get them hooked at first, but they kept doing it later:

> After the rats were trained to push the level for sugar, Lignier changed the experiment's parameters. Sometimes taking a picture would yield a piece of sugar, and sometimes would not.

> Nevertheless, the rats kept on jamming the button, taking dozens of selfies. After awhile, he says they largely stopped bothering to eat the sugar, even when it came out.