How adaptation makes primates stupid

[Jake]

Put 8 monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling. Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed on, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly and he has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder; A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him. This includes the previous new monkey,who, grateful that he’s not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he’s attacking the new monkey. One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

That is how

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,

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and

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profiling get established and followed.

Think twice before following a tradition, religion or negative ethnic profiling. It would make more sense if you get your own understanding to it!

-Author Unknown

 

[Oerdin]

Do we have a link to the original study? I would like to see if this is true or just apocryphal.

 

[Jake]

Sorry, the only provenance Google can produce for this tale is that it's been around for years, probably has a UK origin, and is considered an "inspirational story." No evidence to claim a scientific study has ever been done.

However, anyone who's versed in primate behavior will probably think such a study unnecessary. And any social anthropologist will probably hypothesize that a parallel study using humans would produce the same sorts of outcomes.

Your choice of "apocryphal" is good, and maybe I'd prefer it to "pseudoepigraphical."

 

[LotusBud]

Put 8 monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling. Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed on, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly and he has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder; A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him. This includes the previous new monkey,who, grateful that he’s not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he’s attacking the new monkey. One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

That is how

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,

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and

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profiling get established and followed.

Think twice before following a tradition, religion or negative ethnic profiling. It would make more sense if you get your own understanding to it!

-Author Unknown

Now I understand why there are so many millions of Muricans who vote against logic and think they are doing the right thing.

 

[Oerdin]

Sorry, the only provenance Google can produce for this tale is that it's been around for years, probably has a UK origin, and is considered an "inspirational story." No evidence to claim a scientific study has ever been done.

However, anyone who's versed in primate behavior will probably think such a study unnecessary. And any social anthropologist will probably hypothesize that a parallel study using humans would produce the same sorts of outcomes.

Your choice of "apocryphal" is good, and maybe I'd prefer it to "pseudoepigraphical."

Honestly, I don’t see it actually happening because 1) wild primates have very defined social pecking orders and challenging the dominate maleor even a high positioned male frequently results in death to the challenging individual and 2) It would require constant 24/7 attention to prevent a hungry individual from just sneaking up there when no one is looking (such as at night).

 

[Breakfall]

Sorry, the only provenance Google can produce for this tale is that it's been around for years, probably has a UK origin, and is considered an "inspirational story." No evidence to claim a scientific study has ever been done.

However, anyone who's versed in primate behavior will probably think such a study unnecessary. And any social anthropologist will probably hypothesize that a parallel study using humans would produce the same sorts of outcomes.

Your choice of "apocryphal" is good, and maybe I'd prefer it to "pseudoepigraphical."

Honestly, I don’t see it actually happening because 1) wild primates have very defined social pecking orders and challenging the dominate maleor even a high positioned male frequently results in death to the challenging individual and 2) It would require constant 24/7 attention to prevent a hungry individual from just sneaking up there when no one is looking (such as at night).

I concur...that whole experiment seems to relate more to humanity. The other primates wouldn’t be sucked in that easily.

 

[Jeannie]

when im tit deep at the beach and everyone screams and heads for the shore i dont ask questions or look around for a fin - monkey see monkey do and ask questions later lol

in most cases following the herd saves lives

 

[Oerdin]

I remember watching a documentary about chimpanzees in Africa. Usually they just eat fruits, flowers, leaves, and the odd insects but when someone challenges the dominant male or an outside male tries to horn in and have sex with his females... The dominant male will sometimes kill the challenger, eat part of him as a display of dominance and then distribute parts of the dead challenger’s body to other members of his band in order to reward loyalty. If the dominant male decides to climb up for the bananas then I don’t see the group challenging him over it. Especially not over something as trivial as water.