Editing Boiling frog (section)

==As metaphor==
{{Quote box | quote  = If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death. | source = Version of the story from [[Daniel Quinn]]'s ''[[The Story of B]]'' | width  = 40% | align  = right}}

The boiling frog story is generally offered as a [[metaphor]] cautioning people to be aware of even gradual change lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences. It may be invoked in support of a [[slippery slope]] argument as a caution against [[creeping normality]]. It is also used in business to reinforce that change needs to be gradual to be accepted.<ref name=volokh>{{Cite journal |title=The Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope |first=Eugene |last=Volokh |author-link=Eugene Volokh |volume=116 |journal=[[Harvard Law Review]] |issue=4 |pages=1026–1137 |year=2003 |jstor=1342743 |doi=10.2307/1342743  }}</ref> The term "boiling frog syndrome" is a metaphor used to describe the failure to act against a problematic situation which will increase in severity until reaching catastrophic proportions.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015|title=boiling frog syndrome|url=https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/boiling+frog+syndrome|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-28|website=[[The Free Dictionary]]|publisher=Farlex|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910083243/http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/boiling+frog+syndrome|archive-date=2015-09-10}}</ref> It thereby encapsulates the barely noticeable impact of slow [[environmental degradation]] that has been described by [[Daniel Pauly]] as [[shifting baseline]]s.<ref>{{cite news |title=Classics: Shifting baselines |url=https://conservationbytes.com/2011/02/14/classics-shifting-baselines/ |website=ConservationBytes.com |access-date=23 March 2022 |date=14 February 2011}}</ref>

The story has been retold many times and used to illustrate widely varying viewpoints: in 1960 about warning against those who wished for [[detente]] during the [[Cold War]];<ref>{{cite news |first=Walter |last=Trohan |title=Report from Washington |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=6 June 1960 |page=2 |quote=The frog dropped into boiling water has sense to leap out, but the frog dropped into cold water can be cooked to death before he realizes he is in serious trouble. So it is with us Americans and our civilization in this mounting crisis. We must beware of those who want to thaw the cold war out at any cost. We may be cooked before we realize what has happened.}}</ref> in 1980 about the impending collapse of civilization anticipated by [[Survivalism|survivalists]];<ref>Quoted in {{cite news |first=Cammille |last=Recchia |title=Area Survivalists Circle Wagons for Coming Armageddon; Survivalists Prepare to Ride Out Armageddon; Fearing Economic Chaos, Advocates Store Food, Buy Gold, Silver |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=25 August 1980 |page=C1 |quote=That's what's happening to us. Things are getting worse and worse, so we don't really notice what's happening. Whatever happens will happen slowly, and we won't have time to jump out.}}</ref> in the 1990s about inaction in response to [[climate change]] and staying in [[Domestic violence|abusive relationships]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Crispin |last=Tickell |title=Human Effects of Climate Change: Excerpts from a Lecture Given to the Society on 26 March 1990 |journal=[[The Geographical Journal]] |volume=156 |issue=3 |year=1990 |pages=325–329 [p. 325] |quote=This is not an experiment I wish to commend, but it has lessons for another animal—ourselves. If drastic change takes place abruptly, we notice and react to it. If it takes place gradually, over a few generations, we are hardly aware of it, and by the time that we are ready to react, it can be too late. |doi=10.2307/635534  |jstor=635534 |bibcode=1990GeogJ.156..325T }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Patricia |last=Evans |title=The Verbally Abusive Relationship: How To Recognize it and How to Respond |location=Holbrook, MA |publisher=Adams Media |year=1996 |page=[https://archive.org/details/verballyabusiver00evan/page/111 111] |quote=We are not inclined to notice gradual changes. This is how most partners adapt to verbal abuse. They slowly adapt until, like frog number two, they are living in an environment which is killing to their spirit. |isbn=1-55850-582-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/verballyabusiver00evan/page/111 }}</ref> It has also been used by [[Libertarianism|libertarians]] to warn about the slow erosion of [[civil liberties]].<ref name=volokh />

In the 1996 novel ''[[The Story of B]]'', environmentalist author [[Daniel Quinn]] spends a chapter on the metaphor of the boiling frog, using it to describe human history, population growth and food surplus.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Story of B|chapter=The Boiling Frog|last=Quinn|first=Daniel|year=1996|publisher=Random House Publishing |isbn=0-553-37901-1 }}</ref> [[Pierce Brosnan]]'s character Harry Dalton mentioned it in the 1997 disaster movie ''[[Dante's Peak]]'' in reference to the accumulating warning signs of the volcano's reawakening.<ref>{{cite video | people=[[Pierce Brosnan]] (Star), [[Roger Donaldson]] (Director), [[Leslie Bohem]] (Writer) |date=1997 | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118928/ | title=Dante's Peak| medium=Motion picture | location=USA}}</ref> [[Al Gore]] used a version of the story in a ''New York Times'' op-ed,<ref name="Gore NYT">{{cite news|last=Gore|first=Albert|title=An Ecological Kristallnacht. Listen.|date=March 19, 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/19/opinion/an-ecological-kristallnacht-listen.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=14 Sep 2015}}</ref> in his presentations and the 2006 movie ''[[An Inconvenient Truth]]'' to describe ignorance about [[global warming]]. In the movie version the frog is rescued before it is harmed.<ref>{{cite video | people=[[Al Gore]] (Writer), [[Davis Guggenheim]] (Director) |date=2006 | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/ | title=An Inconvenient Truth | medium=Motion picture | location=USA}}</ref> This use of the story was referenced by writer/director [[Jon Cooksey]] in the title of his 2010 comedic documentary ''[[How to Boil a Frog]]''.<ref>{{cite video | people=[[Jon Cooksey]] (Writer/director) |date=2010 | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1455659/ | title=How to Boil a Frog | medium=Motion picture | location=Canada}}</ref>

Law professor and legal commentator [[Eugene Volokh]] commented in 2003 that regardless of the behavior of real frogs, the boiling frog story is useful as a [[metaphor]], comparing it to the metaphor of an [[Ostrich effect|ostrich with its head in the sand]].<ref name=volokh /> Economics Nobel laureate and ''New York Times'' [[op-ed]] writer [[Paul Krugman]] used the story as a metaphor in a July 2009 column, while pointing out that real frogs behave differently.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13krugman.html | work=The New York Times | title=Boiling the Frog | first=Paul | last=Krugman | date=2009-07-13 | access-date=2010-04-26}}</ref> Journalist [[James Fallows]] has been advocating since 2006 for people to stop retelling the story, describing it as a "stupid canard" and a "myth".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2006/09/the_boiledfrog_myth_stop_the_l.php|title=The boiled-frog myth: stop the lying now!|first=James |last=Fallows |author-link=James Fallows |work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=13 March 2007|access-date=2009-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/03/the_boiledfrog_myth_hey_really.php|title=The boiled-frog myth: hey, really, knock it off!|first=James |last=Fallows |work=The Atlantic|date=16 September 2006|access-date=2009-06-24}}</ref> After Krugman's column appeared, however, he declared "peace on the boiled frog front" and said that using the story is acceptable if the writer points out that it is not literally true.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/peace_on_the_boiled_frog_front.php |title=Peace on the boiled frog front |date=July 13, 2009 |first=James |last=Fallows |work=The Atlantic }}</ref>