100th Monkey

A group of anthropologists wanted to learn about how the social learning takes place in a society. Like to learn about human behavior, observe monkeys, they are our forefathers. So they selected a gang of monkeys living in the Japanese island.

The researchers wanted to observe the process by which monkeys learn to wash the sweet potatoes. They dropped sacks full of sweet potatoes which were muddied. Some fell on the river and most on the land. Monkeys might have thought that gods have given them manna from the heaven, and started eating without wasting time. Why to waste time in cleaning up the free gifts, it will be an insult to the donor, accept things as they are and make merry of it. But few baby monkeys were attracted towards the potatoes on the water. They played with them for some time, when got tired, they ate them. Somehow those few baby monkeys realized that after playing with potatoes in the water, they tasted better.

Now, even if they had found potatoes on the landside, they picked them, and put them in the river, played for some time, then only ate them. Watching those few baby monkeys having fun with their new found game, other baby monkeys joined in the process of washing and eating.

The number of monkeys learning this habit of washing and eating potatoes increased gradually. Always one or two of them joined the washing club. Adult and old monkeys initially might have thought that these baby monkeys are crazy and idiots for playing with food stuff in the water. If not out of curiosity, due to the sheer boredom of existence slowly one or two joined the new endeavor (usually the older ones (human beings or monkeys) join new activities towards the end, after making fun of them and criticizing them for creating new pattern.

What fascinated the researchers was the fact that up to the critical number, the increase in number of monkeys learning the new habit was few in number, but once the critical number of monkeys learned to wash, then a kind of revolution took place, all the monkeys of the gang started washing potatoes before eating. Let’s assume that the critical number is 100, then up to 100, the number of monkeys learning to wash potatoes was increasing by two or three, but once the 100^th monkey learned the new behavior, then it becomes part of the collective consciousness of that group of monkeys. The new behavior started spreading to other groups too.

The important lesson learned from the experiment is that one should not give up good habits, even when others are doing the opposite. Who knows you may be the 100^th monkey who is going to bring the revolution in the positive direction.

Even if you are not the 100^th monkey, you would be the person who is pushing the number towards the critical number. Your contribution towards positive behavior (ethical) will certainly bear the fruit, if not immediately certainly in the course of time (may in the next century; better late than never).