The Hundredth Monkey Effect

BizzFlip Recap: Enjoy this encore post from September 2007.

According to Wikipedia, The Hundredth Monkey Effect generally describes the instant, paranormal spreading of an idea or ability to the remainder of a population once a certain portion of that population has heard of the new idea or learned the new ability. However, for those of you that don't know the origin of this phenomenal Effect, you're not only going to get excited you're going to instantly re-realize how freaking similar we are, as today's modern civilization, to this wonderfully wild species.

The year was 1952. The setting was an island somewhere in the south seas. A few anthropologists were studying the behavior of the macaques, a Japanese Monkey native to the islands with a diet consisting primarily of sweet potatoes. By routine, the monkeys would dig up a potato, break it in half and eat only from the center in order to avoid the potato's sandy coat, discarding the rest. After one potato, the monkey would go back to dig another. One insightful afternoon, a pioneering monkey decided to rinse his potato, allowing him to eat it whole, and dig for fewer potatoes. Consequently, he not only began enjoying a cleaner habit, he instantly created more free time to enjoy the things he loved to do. Was he praised immediately? Just the opposite. His family and friends just couldn't understand why he was doing something so different! Despite this, some of the onlooking monkeys became privy to the transition and began washing their potatoes too. Slowly but surely, many more of the surrounding monkeys shared in the innovation.  Hundreds of monkeys continued to hold fast to their comfortable method even though they began to notice the abundance the other monkeys were enjoying at the beach. Now, supposedly when the hundredth monkey took the leap of faith, all the rest followed. Most remarkably and due to an evident mass consciousness, the paradigm immediately shifted amongst the monkeys inhabiting the neighboring islands too!

How does this apply to our modern business world? By opening up to healthier methods of living and working, you will effectively create more time and space to enjoy life, including relaxation, hobbies, service, family, etc. Not to mention the fact that just like that courageous monkey, you will inspire others to do the same.

Oh yeah...when it comes to business, listen to your heart as opposed to the others around you - especially the ones who love you the most! Your friends and family never want to see you let down, or for heaven's sake, fail. That's why they generally want you to take the highly predictable and extremely cautious route. Aikido their energy to prove them all wrong! Chances are they will be the first people to complement you on your new boat should you invite them aboard for a sail. Gangway!      

-Forrest Kolb   

Comments

[anonymous]

Forrest, I understand that you're trying to get ahead in business, but I put a lot of stock in accuracy. The Hundredth Monkey phenomenon deals with observed behaviour among Japanese snow macaques (it's not in "the south seas"); Lyall Watson first publicized the account, and subsequent research has disproved it.

Good luck with your business.

[Forrest]

Thanks for catching the bugs! And extra thanks for wishing me luck on my business journey:)

[Gay]

Stupid article. It gives no evidence for this finding.
Scientists have no problem in believing in "Paranormal" activities like mind telepathy to other monkeys on islands. But prayer to God is "foolish". Scientists are hypocrites.

[Forrest]

Gay,

Wah! However I do agree with you very much on the prayer point. Prayer and meditation happen to be two of my favorite hobbies!

[Suricou Raven]

Its a nice story, but nothing other than a story.

Gay, I dont think you will find any credible scientists believing in any form of telepathy at all, due to it failing every controled trial attempted.

[joseph]

forrest,

thats bcoz it's hard to prove or disprove god's existence. logically speaking, it is an either or case. the monkey thing is an observed business. how can u link both things in such rough manner? it's precisely behaviour like this that pisses ppl off. science is a methodological process that can achieve CONSISTENT results and replicate without failure. by far, it's the best thinking method.

[Rich Gautier]

99 Monkeys to go before we're in big trouble, then - http://www.break.com/index/monkey-riding-mini-bike.html

[Matt]

The paranormal "hundredth monkey effect" has been debunked thoroughly in books like Why People Believe Weird Things (http://skepdic.com/refuge/weird.html ).

Yes, monkeys on islands did learn to wash potatoes, but they did that all the time, and there was no magical tipping point where the practice spread to all of them telepathically.

Check out http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2005/09/monkey-see-monkey-do-not.html

'The first debunking of the "hundredth monkey" story came in 1985, when Ron Amundson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii, published "The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon" (Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1985). Amundson documented that there had been a colony of monkeys -- on an island called Koshima. And many of those monkeys did learn how to wash sweet potatoes. But the number of monkeys never exceeded 59. And there was no evidence of a leap of consciousness from monkey to monkey.

Confronted with this information, myth creator Watson responded with a monkey mea culpa (Whole Earth Review, Fall 1986): "It is a metaphor of my own making, based . . . on very slim evidence and a great deal of hearsay." But even Watson's admission failed to put the monkey matter to rest -- and now the monkeys are making a return engagement. So we contacted Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Emory University's Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta. De Waal, who has been studying primates for 28 years, recently returned from Koshima with an update on the potato-washing monkeys. There are now about 100 monkeys in the colony, de Waal says, but there is still no mind-meld miracle. And the percentage of monkeys that wash their potatoes has declined to about 25%: The monkeys may see, but the monkeys no do. "It's clearly a made-up story," de Waal says.'

I appreciate the moral of your post (believe in yourself, don't be afraid to venture out on your own, do what you think is right, lead and others will follow, etc.) and it's positive. But I don't think you should rely on a "woowoo" story just because it sounds good.

Here's another lesson worth learning: "Don't believe everything you hear and get the facts straight."

Take care. ;)

[Chris]

I thought this concept was known as morpho-genetics?