Hundredth monkey effect
The Hundredth monkey effect is an esoteric idea claiming that a new behavior or idea is spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical number of members of one group exhibit the new behavior or acknowledge the new idea. The behavior was said to propagate even to groups that are physically separated and have no apparent means of communicating with each other.
Since it was first popularized, the effect has been discredited in many cases of research. One of the primary factors in the spread of this concept is that many authors quote secondary, tertiary, or post-tertiary sources that have themselves misrepresented the original observations.
The “100th monkey effect” is a popular, though unscientific, theory that when a critical number of individuals in a group adopt a new idea or behavior, the new idea or behavior spontaneously spreads to all of the others in the group, even across geographical distances. The story originated from observations of Japanese macaque monkeys on Koshima Island in the mid-20th century who began washing sweet potatoes in the ocean after one monkey started the practice. While the idea of a sudden, non-local spread of information is not scientifically supported, the concept is often used as an analogy for how ideas and behaviors can spread rapidly through human populations.
This video explains the origin and concept of the 100th monkey effect: youtube/v=QPNpqulWW78 (youtube/v=QPNpqulWW78)
The monkey story
- The behavior: In the 1950s, scientists observed monkeys on Koshima Island learning to wash sweet potatoes in the sea to clean them before eating them.
- Initial spread: This habit initially spread among the young monkeys and their mothers.
- The “critical mass”: According to the theory, once the number of monkeys washing sweet potatoes reached a certain point—the “100th monkey”—the behavior instantly spread to other groups of monkeys on neighboring islands, without any direct contact between the groups.
The theory’s modern application
- Information cascades: The story is often used to explain concepts like information cascades, which describes how an idea can spread quickly through a population once it reaches a critical level of acceptance.
- Collective consciousness: It has become a popular concept in New Age circles, where it is used to suggest that individual change can lead to a global transformation of consciousness.
- Scientific basis: While the idea of spontaneous, non-local spread has no scientific evidence, the story is a powerful metaphor for the speed at which ideas, both true and false, can spread through societies, especially with modern technology like the internet.
You can watch this video to learn more about how the idea of 100th monkey effect is used in modern contexts: youtube/v=_YiYpAfsDXo (youtube/v=_YiYpAfsDXo)
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2019/11/21/hundredth-monkey-effect-and-information-cascade/
[2] https://www.context.org/iclib/ic09/myers/
[3] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creating-lasting-change-100th-monkey-effect-vinayak-buche
[4] https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2018/11/14/information-cascades-and-the-hundredth-monkey-effect/
[5] https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-03-26/climate-policys-search-for-the-100th-monkey/
[6] https://empsy.medium.com/the-100th-monkey-effect-b669d504e347
[8] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/100th-monkey-effect-shift-collective-consciousness-ml6mf
Not all images can be exported from Search.