The 100th Monkey Effect

There is a story about monkeys being studied in Japan in the 1950s. The story goes like this: scientists observed the monkey’s behavior on a small island for years. The scientists were feeding the monkeys wheat and sweet potatoes, but the monkeys didn’t eat the food if it dropped in the sand.

One day the scientists watched a young female monkey named Imo take a sweet potato to a nearby stream and wash the sand from the potato. Imo then taught this trick to her mother, then to her playmates, and they, in turn, taught other mothers and other playmates how to wash sandy sweet potatoes.

The scientists noticed some adult monkeys were ignoring what the other monkeys were doing. They didn’t adopt the new behavior. But a certain number of monkeys washed the potatoes when something incredible happened. It’s as if the sun rose one morning, 99 monkeys were washing potatoes and another monkey joined in, making it 100 monkeys washing their food. Then in the evening, an extraordinary thing happened. Almost all of the monkeys in the tribe were washing potatoes. This new behavior soon spread across the water to other monkeys on nearby islands.

Was 100 the magic number for the news to spread like smoke from a tire fire? Had one monkey swam to the nearby island to show off his new trick? Nobody knew for sure, but it was as if the communication jumped across the ocean, somehow communicated from mind to mind, and all the monkeys, everywhere were now washing their food.

You Can’t Teach Old Monkeys New Tricks.

Although this story has been the subject of skeptics as to whether it happened, the research from a paper published in 1954 confirmed the following:

1. The first young monkey taught the technique to their immediate family and peers, who, in turn, passed it along to their family and friends.
2. When the first group became adults and had kids, the behavior was no longer taught but mimicked.
3. The first innovator continues to innovate. Imo also threw the wheat into the water, catching the wheat as it floated to the top, letting the water sift the wheat grains from the sand.
4. The innovator’s sibling was also innovative. The monkeys couldn’t swim and were fearful of the ocean, but going after the wheat they threw in the water made them go deeper and deeper, almost submerging their heads, which led to playful splashing in the ocean.
5. If the monkeys are too old, they don’t adopt the new behavior.

It appears there wasn’t a correlation to the number of monkeys where a tipping point happened. Claims were later made that there were only 59 monkeys in the colony at the time. And since those particular monkeys couldn’t swim, there wasn’t a way to get to nearby islands and teach other monkeys. One thing that was revealed from the study is that certain age groups would not learn the new behavior.

The Collective Consciousness

Whether the 100th monkey story is exaggerated, is an inspirational parable, or has been debunked, the more fascinating takeaway to me is how this story became an urban legend itself.

Carl Jung talked about collective consciousness. If enough people share a new belief, idea, or behavior, all individuals in a society adopt it. In other words, if enough people hold something as truth, it becomes true for the masses.

This is where the law of critical mass, or tipping point, comes into play. If enough people, say a herd of humans, adopt new thoughts and behaviors, it can grow and sustain itself and be transferred like a virus.

You can see this in the supply and demand for products we buy. For example, remember the Tickle Me Elmo doll craze? Supposedly Rosie O’Donnell showed the doll on her show, resulting in a mass Elmo-mania shopping frenzy in 1996.

So the question bears asking, can we apply this behavior technique to human society to effect positive change?

Effect Positive Change

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. — Aldous Huxley, author of the Brave New World

Saying the year 2020 has been challenging is an ironic understatement. Between the political mudslinging, cancel culture, online censorship (or not — who knows?), to the toilet paper panic, COVID-19, and the misinformation surrounding it, many people I’ve talked to are confused and starting to question what to believe. They wonder who they should listen to and what news source is the best. This, I think, is a good thing. From Euripides to Einstein to George Carlin, some of history’s greats have been quoted as saying we should question everything, everywhere, all the time.

On the other hand, many people count on the mainstream media for all their news. Is there a one-sided agenda? It does have the ability to influence and shape the prevailing winds of thought. And it’s been reported that over the last few years, journalism has shifted towards opinion-based content that relies heavily on argumentation and less on objectivity. There is competition for clicks, politicization, donation-based pay, and the ability for social media to create confusion and spread misinformation.

Whenever I hear a powerful statement or opinion, I use a technique I call The 180. It’s where you look at the belief or judgment and debate whether the complete opposite could be true. We live in a world of duality, and you can often see the truth on both sides if you are open-minded. If we were all more understanding, less judgmental, less fear-based, and more love-focused, we would have more peace on this planet. So how about we update the viral quote, “We are in this together,” to simply “Together, we belong.” All we need is 100 monkeys.