An experiment was apparently conducted with five monkeys.
A bunch of bananas was hung from the roof of their cage.
Then a stepladder was placed under the bananas.
Monkeys like bananas, and monkeys are smart.
So they ran to the stepladder and started climbing it.
Immediately they did, all the monkeys were sprayed with ice-cold water.
Monkeys don’t like ice-cold water, so they stopped.
But, when the water stopped, they tried it again.
Again, all the monkeys were sprayed.
Some of the monkeys got the message and stopped trying.
It didn’t make any differences.
When any of the monkeys tried, all the monkeys got sprayed.
So fewer and fewer monkeys tried.
But when even a single monkey tried, everyone got sprayed.
So the monkeys stopped anyone else from trying.
Eventually this became group learning.
No one goes near the stepladder because the group will get sprayed.
So the group stops the individual.
And eventually the individual learns not to try.
Then one monkey was replaced.
The new monkey came in and went to get the bananas.
As soon as he got near the stepladder the other four monkeys jumped on him and stopped him.
He didn’t know why they stopped him, but he knew there was something bad about the ladder.
He learned fear of the ladder, even though he’d never been sprayed.
His fear wasn’t even about water.
It was about the other monkeys jumping on him.
One-by-one they replaced the monkeys.
And each time the new monkey had the same experience.
Innocently going for the bananas, then being forcibly stopped by the other monkeys.
Learning that, for some reason, they shouldn’t go near the bananas.
If they did something bad would happen.
Eventually, all the original monkeys had been replaced.
Not one remaining monkey had ever been sprayed as a result of going for the bananas.
But they’d all been trained by the other monkeys to fear the bananas.
Now monkeys can’t talk of course.
They’re smart enough to learn behaviour, but not smart enough to question it.
The hose had been disconnected and taken away ages ago, so there was no way to spray them.
But it didn’t matter.
None of the monkeys knew about the hose anyway.
They just knew they should be terrified of the thing they wanted.
And they didn’t know why.
It was just passed on from one group to the next.
The fear, not the reality.
And so eventually the fear became the reality.
Unlike us, monkeys have no way to question what they fear.
But, although we can question it, we still respond like monkeys.
That’s group behaviour.
A thing can’t be done because everyone agrees it can’t be done.
So the agreement is not to try.
It’s learned thinking.
But actually it’s not really thinking at all, it’s just acceptance.
Real thinking is about questioning.
Thinking is about finding out, and coming to our own conclusions.
That’s scepticism.
That’s the basis of western philosophy.
That’s what brought us out of the dark ages.
Before a thing is done, all the agreement, all the conventional wisdom, says it can’t be done.
And it’s stupid even to try.
After someone has ignored the group and done it, all the conventional wisdom is reversed.
Of course it could be done, anyone could see that it could be done, no one really believed it couldn’t be done.
And then all the conventional wisdom shifts to something else that can’t be done.
That’s what I love about people who are ‘enfant terrible’.
They love finding out what you shouldn’t do.
Then doing it.
They don’t just want to be known for doing what was do-able.
Doing something anyone could do.
That’s boring.
The fun is in doing what everyone said couldn’t be done.
In finding another way to get the bananas.
Ha, Dave. That’s what they do in the army. When I was doing my Basic, if one guy messes up – not keeping his area of the barrack clean, for example – everyone got punished. Push-ups or confined to the camp for weekends being the more common ones.
Robin. - 14 December 2011 2:57 am
Dave,
When I was four I was smaller than my mum (God Bless her)
and she was a Leprachaun!
We used to walk past a Council sign once a week.
The sign was about 8 feet off the ground.
Vertically Challehnged, I wondered if someday I’d reach the sign.
One day we walked past the sign and I instantaneously spat and hit it.
I was chuffed.
My Mum gave me such a wallop.
“Never do that again Kevin!!!”
So from that day on I made sure Mum never found out what I was up to.
Kev - 14 December 2011 10:44 am
Where’s Grilla? I bet he’s an expert in finding different ways to get bananas.
rachel carroll - 14 December 2011 12:12 pm
The piece starts with “…apparently…” and nobody questions whether it is fact or fiction. Given the point that is being made, this strikes me as odd.
Nigel M - 14 December 2011 2:44 pm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_the_monkey_banana_and_water_spray_experiment_ever_take_place
Liam Tate - 14 December 2011 3:19 pm
Thanks a lot Liam.
Dave Trott - 14 December 2011 3:28 pm
I’ve heard this story before. In a way that relates to religion. And our habit of accepting rules and beliefs without questioning why they exist. What exactly are we so scared of? Does anyone even know anymore?
LNNS - 14 December 2011 3:44 pm
No worries Dave, can I have a banana now?
Liam Tate - 14 December 2011 6:25 pm
Dave,
In these contracting times, I’m questioning the ‘wisdom’ of h.r. Why do some companies seem to think they have to have a h.r dept. Why can’t companies have the balls to just do whatever and be damned?
john p woods - 18 December 2011 8:36 pm
Works for me John.
If you find one let me know.
Dave Trott - 20 December 2011 1:21 am
Dave, a great analogy of how most clients think. The question is how you get them to think otherwise?
JK - 21 December 2011 12:47 am
Maybe a Christmas P45 marked, ‘It’s nothing personnel’, Dave.
john p woods - 21 December 2011 2:39 pm
Part 1 of 40 years of evidence of caged minds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYre8SlOO_k
Kev - 24 December 2011 9:56 am
Hi Dave,
A happy new year to you.
“Real thinking is about questioning.
Thinking is about finding out, and coming to our own conclusions.”
This is also the central tenet of Buddhism. Buddha asked to question everything. To never accept something because others say so. To find out yourself and come to your conclusions.
This is also how Steve Jobs built Apple. All through his life he challenged conventional wisdom. He was a true ‘enfant terrible’. As a teenager he had the guts to question his pastor whether God knew everything. And, if so then why there are so many starving children around the world?
Dinesh Bhadwal - 2 January 2012 6:44 am
Hi Dinesh,
I absolutely agree.
I’ve always taught my children this quote:
“Do not put faith in traditions, even though they have been accepted for long generations and in many countries.
Do not believe a thing because many repeat it.
Do not accept a thing on the authority of one or another of the sages of old, nor on the ground that a statement is found in the books.
Never believe anything because probability is in its favour.
Do not believe in that which you have yourselves imagined, thinking that a god has inspired it.
Believe nothing merely on the authority of your teachers or of the priests.
After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourselves and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well-being and that of others.”
Buddha
Dave Trott - 2 January 2012 1:35 pm
Dave,
I chose the confirmation name Thomas because I doubt what anyone tells me.
The proof is always in the pudding as they say.
That said, I think my christmas pudding was about 70% proof.
john p woods - 3 January 2012 12:49 pm
http://styled-comments.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-287-290.html
Anca - 3 January 2012 2:18 pm
Dave et al,
Firstly, a belated Happy Christmas and New Year.
Surely there’s a time for questioning and a time for not.
If everybody always questioned everything
we’d never agree on anything.
and if we never agreed on anything
nothing would ever get done.
john, I took your confirmation name ‘John’ because
he was the disciple who believed in the existence of
Christ without proof. Blind faith.
If man had no faith.
He would have no belief.
If he had no belief.
He would have no hope.
He could never walk in total darkness.
Yet the blind do every day.
If man had no faith in others.
He would be unable to build upon the work of others.
Think about it.
Nothing would ever get done.
Yet a blind man can walk in faith with his trusted dog.
However, quote:-
“After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourselves and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well-being and that of others.”
provides an interesting twist because isn’t that really saying
Judge within your own powers of reason first,
then test your reasoning out with others to see if it works?
What’s unreasonable about that?
So why does the inquiring mind have such a hard time of it?
Why are people so reluctant to change?
Surely this is the difference between
thinking that fits and
thinking that works.
Just because something fits does not mean it works,
but how many times do people plummet for the one that fits?
because…it’s
comfortable?
dull?
boring?
un-challenging?
u-n-c-r-e-a-t-i-v-e
Kev - 3 January 2012 8:34 pm
Kev,
I got a bit of yin and yang going on with John and Thomas as names. Mercifully I’ve got Patrick separating the two in the overlap…which is where I try and spend most of my time…http://davetrott.campaignlive.co.uk/2009/09/30/living-in-the-overlap/
john p woods - 4 January 2012 8:35 pm
Yeah alright John, I gotcha.
I’m living in total discomfort right now.
just moved home.
No hot water.
No TV.
Replaced cracked leaking tiles in loft.
Scraping linoleum some idiot stuck to the kitchen wall
playing musical cars to park at night
and neighbours nicking empty bins.
I luv Sarf Lundun.
Doin the Lamberf wawk oi!
Kev - 5 January 2012 10:44 am
Kev,
Living on the edge beats living on a ledge.
Just paper over any problems like everyone else and you’ll be right as rain.
And remember, if you’re going to lead anyone up the garden path, crazy paving isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
john p woods - 5 January 2012 3:01 pm