Hundredth Monkey: Encyclopedia - Hundredth Monkey

Hundredth Monkey

The "Hundredth Monkey" is the name for a supposed phenomenon in which a particular learned behaviour spread instantaneously from one group of animals, once a critical number was reached, to all related animals in the region or perhaps throughout the world. Largely due to popularisation of this story, the "Hundredth Monkey" phenomenon is now thought by many to occur in human populations with respect to ideas and beliefs in general even though the original story has been discredited (Myers 1985).

The story of the "Hundredth Monkey" 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, according to Watson the researchers noted 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 with the publication of his book The Hundredth Monkey. Keyes presented the "Hundredth Monkey" 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.

Rupert Sheldrake has cited the "Hundredth Monkey Effect" as evidence of morphogenetic fields bringing about non-local effects in consciousness and learning.

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 differs 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, Ph.D., explains how the urban legend started, was popularised, and has been discredited.

It is often claimed that the truth or falsity of the "Hundredth Monkey" story is a secondary issue, and that its true value and significance is as a sort of "transformative myth" that encourages those who believe in it to have an optimistic view of the possibility of positive change, particularly in human society.

Hundredth Monkey - 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

• 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

Categories: Scientific hoaxes | Pseudoscience | Urban legends

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