Konrad Lorenz

Austrian zoologist

• Born: November 7, 1903; Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
• Died: February 27, 1989; Altenburg, Austria

A key figure in the study of animal behavior, Konrad Lorenz was one of the first biologists to combine behavioral science with evolutionary theory, and his controversial views on human behavior are among the earliest examples of evolutionary psychology.

Primary field: Biology

Specialties: Ethology; zoology

Early Life

Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was born on November 7, 1903, in Vienna, Austria. His parents, both physicians, owned a large estate near a wooded area. Young Lorenz was fascinated by animals, and he cared for an extensive menagerie that included reptiles, amphibians, birds, dogs, cats, and monkeys. He treated his animal collection as a research project, keeping written records of feeding regimens and behaviors.

At the request of his father, Lorenz studied medicine, first at Columbia University, then at the University of Vienna, where he received an MD degree in 1928. Though his parents hoped he would become a physician, Lorenz studied anatomy and embryology under Ferdinand Hochstetter, with the goal of understanding the biology of animal behavior. Lorenz remained at the University of Vienna, where he worked as an assistant professor and, in 1933, completed a PhD in zoology.

Life’s Work

In the early twentieth century, the study of animal behavior was not considered a serious scientific discipline, something that Lorenz wanted to change. Lorenz collaborated with German biologist Oskar Heinroth, who was using morphology (the physical appearance, or developing appearance, of an animal) as the basis for comparative studies of behavior. Lorenz used Heinroth’s research as the foundation for several papers on the behavior of birds and fish. Hochstetter supported Lorenz’s research as a type of comparative anatomy, thereby allowing him to publish in high-profile biological journals.

In Altenberg during the mid 1930s, Lorenz continued to breed and raise captive birds, his primary research subjects. He was interested in imprinting, the learning process by which animals follow and imitate the first object or creature they see after birth. Imprinting was first observed and recorded in 1873 by naturalist Douglas Spalding but not formally investigated until Heinroth’s 1910 paper on the subject. Lorenz conducted extensive research on imprinting, including numerous experiments with hybrid graylag geese. In these experiments, Lorenz found that, by using himself as the surrogate parent and modeling behavior for the goslings’ imprinting, he could induce them to imitate and court humans rather than geese. Lorenz also noted that, after imprinting, the altered behavior appeared to be permanently fixed.

Lorenz also worked with ornithologist Wallace Craig, who published an important series of papers on what he called the “behavioral sequences” of doves in 1918. Lorenz named these sequences “fixed-action patterns,” which he described as motor patterns initiated by an environmental stimulus but carried to completion with the removal of the stimulus.

During the 1930s, Lorenz gave lectures detailing his theories on instinctive behavior and his method of using anatomy and physiology as the basis for behavioral study. Lorenz asserted that an animal’s behavior depended on evolutionary adaptations, and that the comparative study of closely related species could illuminate the evolutionary process. Lorenz’s approach to behavior was classified as ethology, now understood as the morphological and physiological study of animal behavior. The ethologists of Lorenz’s time were opposed by scientists from the school of comparative psychology, which held that animal behavior and human psychology should be investigated using the same methods. Comparative psychologists conducted many of their experiments in controlled, laboratory environments, which they believed were necessary to evaluate behavior quantitatively. Ethologists, on the other hand, preferred to study animal behavior in natural settings, and preferred observation to laboratory analysis.

In 1936, Lorenz became coeditor of Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, a leading journal of ethology, while working as a lecturer in comparative anatomy at the University of Vienna. That year, Lorenz began collaborating with Nikolaas Tinbergen, a Dutch ornithologist who shared many of Lorenz’s views on instinctive behavior. Lorenz and Tinbergen conducted a series of experiments involving the egg-rolling behavior of graylag geese, using Lorenz’s pets as their study subjects.

In 1939, Lorenz was appointed chair of the psychology department at Albertus University in Königsberg, Germany, where his experiences breeding animals led him to develop theories about the effects of domestication on behavior. Lorenz noted that domestic geese have an increased drive for feeding and mating behavior. Lorenz used the evidence in his controversial theories about the effects of domestication on the human species.

After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1939, Lorenz joined the Nazi Party, a decision that would lead later generations to doubt the quality of his research. Nazi scientists supported Lorenz’s theories on domestication and sponsored his research until 1941. In 1940, Lorenz wrote a now-famous paper in which he used Nazi terminology of racial purity to argue his theories of humanity’s self-domestication. In 1941, Lorenz joined the German military; the following year, he was transferred to the front lines and, later, taken prisoner by the Russians. Lorenz was forced to work at a hospital in Armenia treating patients suffering from traumatic disorders. He remained a captive for six years, during which time he wrote his first book. Later published under the title The Natural Science of the Human Species (also called The Russian Manuscript), the book dealt with instinct, evolution, and comparative animal research.

When Lorenz was repatriated in 1948, he obtained a position at the Max Planck Institute in Seewiesen, Germany. With ethologist Erich von Holst, he cofounded the institute’s department of comparative ethology in 1950. In 1952, Lorenz published an English translation of the widely popular King Solomon’s Ring, a memoir of his experiences as a naturalist and a popular account of his theories on animal behavior.

In 1953, American psychologist Daniel Lehrmann criticized Lorenz, Tinbergen, and other ethologists for their definition of innate knowledge. This criticism started a series of debates between Lorenz and Lehrmann about the causes of behavior and the relative importance of learned versus instinctual, or innate, behavior patterns (this is often called the “nature versusnurture” debate). Eventually, however, Lorenz and Lehrmann became friends, and Lorenz credited Lehrmann as instrumental in the creation of his 1965 book Evolution and Modification of Behavior.

Lorenz’s experience in medicine helped him to clarify his opinions on the modification of human behavior through domestication and civilization. In his 1963 book On Aggression, Lorenz proposed that aggression may be best understood by examining the evolutionary and instinctual drives that lead to aggressive behavior in animals. Lorenz first became interested in aggression following his observations of fish, and after reading research on the behavior of bees published by his colleague, Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch. Much of On Aggression is presented in a philosophical rather than biological form, but the book inspired tremendous debate within the scientific community.

Lorenz retired from the Max Planck Institute in 1973, and became the director of the newly-formed department of animal sociology in the Comparative Ethology Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. That year, Lorenz, Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in founding the field of ethology. In his acceptance speech, Lorenz openly addressed and apologized for his involvement with the Nazis, and expressed his intention to become involved in efforts to sustain natural resources and to further conservation.

Later that year, Lorenz published Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge, an attempt to examine the origins of intelligence and consciousness in humans. In 1974, Lorenz captured the public imagination again when he published Civilized Man’s Eight Deadly Sins, which addressed environmental destruction and the dangers of overpopulation. Both books became national best sellers and paved the way for modern research on conservation and consciousness.

Konrad Lorenz died of kidney failure on February 27, 1989, at his family home in Altenberg.

Impact

Lorenz was a pioneer in the study of animal behavior. His ethological investigations presaged the fields of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which use evolutionary adaptations as a foundation for investigating many facets of human behavior, including child abuse and rape. His comparative methods for studying animals played a crucial role in the development of early ethology. The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Lorenz and his colleagues in 1973 marked a significant moment in ethology’s legitimation as a scientific discipline. His theories helped to define the evolutionary origins of behaviors that span different corners of the animal kingdom. He argued that animals are genetically predisposed to learn knowledge that is advantageous to their survival. Later in his career, his work concerned the behaviors and the ecological costs of human civilization. The aggressive nature of humanity, he argued, could be mitigated through environmental changes and provisions for basic instincts.

Bibliography

Burkhardt, Richard W. Patterns of Behavior: Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the Founding of Ethology. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2005. Print. Examines the institutions, scientists, and contexts by which ethology became a respected scientific discipline. Discusses Lorenz at length in context of contemporary ethological scientists.

Lorenz, Konrad. King Solomon’s Ring: New Light on Animal Ways. 1952. Trans. Marjorie Kerr Wilson. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print. Collects observations, anecdotes, and facts on animal psychology. Humorous, eloquent writing is appropriate for general readers. Includes illustrations by the author.

---. On Aggression. 1963. Trans. Marjorie Kerr Wilson. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print. An inquiry into aggression as a means of survival among a variety of animals. Examines humanity and proposes solutions to the problem of human aggression.