Editing Boiling frog (section)

{{short description|Metaphor about slow change}}
[[File:Frog and saucepan.jpg|thumb|alt=A frog sitting on the handle of a saucepan, which is sitting on an electric hob, which is glowing red.|A frog sitting on the handle of a saucepan on a hot stove.]]

The '''boiling frog''' is an [[apologue]] describing a [[frog]] being slowly [[death by boiling|boiled alive]]. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a [[metaphor]] for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.

While some 19th-century experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true if the heating is sufficiently gradual,<ref name="Offerman 2010">{{Cite web
 | last = Offerman
 | first = Theo
 | title = How to subsidize contributions to public goods
 | date = February 12, 2010
 | url = http://www1.feb.uva.nl/creed/pdffiles/boilingfrog.pdf
 | access-date = December 5, 2012
 | archive-date = March 26, 2016
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160326092117/http://www1.feb.uva.nl/creed/pdffiles/boilingfrog.pdf
 | url-status = dead
 }}</ref><ref name="Sedgwick1888">{{Harvnb|Sedgwick|1888|p=399}}</ref> according to modern biologists the premise is false: changing location is a natural [[thermoregulation]] strategy for frogs and other [[ectotherm]]s, and is necessary for survival in the wild. A frog that is gradually heated will jump out. Furthermore, a frog placed into already boiling water will die immediately, not jump out.<ref name="fastcompany">{{Cite web |date=October 1995 |title=Next Time, What Say We Boil a Consultant |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/26455/next-time-what-say-we-boil-consultant |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119172119/https://www.fastcompany.com/26455/next-time-what-say-we-boil-consultant |archive-date=2018-11-19 |access-date=2017-08-01 |work=Fast Company Issue 01}}</ref><ref name="ecoviews">{{cite web |last1=Gibbons |first1=Whit |title=The Legend of the Boiling Frog is Just a Legend |url=https://archive-srel.uga.edu/outreach/ecoviews/ecoview071223.htm |website=Ecoviews |publisher=Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia |access-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801123347/https://archive-srel.uga.edu/outreach/ecoviews/ecoview071223.htm |archive-date=August 1, 2017 |date=December 23, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>