Hundredth Monkey Effect
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The "Hundredth Monkey Effect" is a supposed phenomenon in which a learned behaviour spread instantaneously from one group of monkeys to all related monkeys once a critical number was reached. The story behind this supposed phenomenon originated with Lyall Watson, who claimed that it was the observation of Japanese scientists. Such an observation did not exist (e.g. Myers 1985, Amundsen 1985, 1991).
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[edit] Popularisation of the claim
The story of the "Hundredth Monkey Effect" apparently originated with Lyall Watson in his 1979 book Lifetide. In it he claimed to describe the observations of scientists studying macaques (a type of monkey) on the Japanese island of Koshima in 1952. Some of these monkeys learned to wash sweet potatoes, and gradually this new behavior spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. However, Watson claimed that the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys was reached—the so-called hundredth monkey—this previously learned behaviour instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands.
This story was further popularized by Ken Keyes Jr with the publication of his book The Hundredth Monkey. Keyes presented the "Hundredth Monkey Effect" story as an inspirational parable, applying it to human society and the effecting of (positive) change therein. Since then, the story has become widely accepted as fact, and has even appeared in books written by some educators.
The content of the book by Keyes was a substantive treatise on the effects of nuclear war on the planet and the devastation caused thereon.
An example of the effect Keyes was seeking is captured in some degree by a two-month prospective experiment and study to reduce violent crime in Washington in 1993. Based on the results of the experiment, the steady state gain (long-term effect) associated with a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs was calculated as a 48% reduction in violent crimes in the District of Columbia. More can be found here: http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/, and many other places on the web. It is seen by many as a prime example of confusing correlation with causation.
Rupert Sheldrake has cited the "Hundredth Monkey Effect" as evidence of morphogenetic fields bringing about non-local effects in consciousness and learning.
[edit] The original research
In 1985, Elaine Myers re-examined the original published research in "The Hundredth Monkey Revisited" in the journal In Context. In her review she found that the original research reports by the Japan Monkey Center in vol. 2, 5 and 6 of the journal Primates differ from Watson's story in significant ways. In short, it contains no evidence that the 'Hundredth Monkey' phenomenon exists; the published articles only describe how the sweet potato washing behavior gradually spread through the monkey troop and became part of the set of learned behaviors of young monkeys. There is no evidence at all of a critical number at which the idea suddenly spread to other islands, and none of the original researchers ever made such a claim.
Despite the lack of supporting evidence for the story as told by Watson and Keyes it is still popular among New Age authors and personal growth gurus and has become an urban legend and part of New Age mythology. As a result, the story has also become a favorite target of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and was used as the title essay in The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal published by them in 1991.
In his book Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer explains how the urban legend started, was popularised, and has been discredited.
[edit] Cultural references
This phenomenon is referenced in the comic Y: The Last Man and is suggested to be related to the phenomenon that is at the core of the series (the sudden, simultaneous death of almost every male on the planet).
[edit] Sources
- Robert Todd Carroll (2005). "The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon." Skeptic's Dictionary.
- Elaine Myers (Spring 1985). "The Hundredth Monkey Revisited." In Context.
- Markus Pössel & Ron Amundson (May/June 1996). "Senior Researcher Comments on the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon in Japan." Skeptical Inquirer.
- Ron Amundson, The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1985, 348-356. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey - and Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1991, ISBN 0-87975-655-1 (see online version under External links).
- Ron Amundson, Watson and the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1987, 303-4. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey - and Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, 1991, ISBN 0-87975-655-1
