You’re probably familiar with lab experiments in which mice are conditioned to behave in a certain way by receiving sugar pellets for “good” behavior and electric shocks for doing the opposite. But what happens when the consequences are random or contradictory, i.e. when the same behavior sometimes is rewarded and sometimes is punished? The answer is that the mice become highly stressed and confused, and start to take no actions at all. In other words, they stop taking risks, which is the safest possible behavior.