Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Monkey see, monkey do  (Read 2453 times)

Offline iddee

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 10855
  • Gender: Male
Monkey see, monkey do
« on: July 02, 2012, 11:36:06 pm »

Psychology 101

If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the top and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.

 

As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys with cold water.

 

After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result ... all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

 

Now, put the cold water away.

 

Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

 

The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

 

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.

 

The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment...... with enthusiasm.

 

Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by the fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked.

 

Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs.

 

Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

 

Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water.

Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.

 

Why, you ask? Because in their minds...that is the way it has always been!

 

This, my friends, is how Congress operates... and this is why, from time to time:

ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.

 
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline Larry Bees

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 711
  • Gender: Male
Re: Monkey see, monkey do
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2012, 09:39:50 am »
 :th_thumbsupup:

Offline Javin

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 157
Re: Monkey see, monkey do
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2012, 12:23:49 am »
iddee:

Did you know that this was an ACTUAL experiment that had these exact results? 

Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288.

Sadly, we're not nearly as far removed from our primate ancestors as we like to pretend we are.

Offline VolunteerK9

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1647
  • Gender: Male
  • Gamecock fan in UT land.
Re: Monkey see, monkey do
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2012, 01:45:19 pm »
Another learned behavior LoL

Ape With AK-47 (Gun)