Demoralization, characterized by a lack of perceived ability to effect change and absence of pleasure or gratification, can lead to a state where an individual stops trying.

“If you don't feel that you can make a difference to anything and you're not enjoying anything or feeling gratification from anything, then that pool is going to win out. That's going to be a demoralized person. The same way, of course, we know in experiments, when you have a rat going for food, if you do it enough, when the rat goes for the food and you take the food away, the rat stops trying.”