A monkey can be trapped by a food reward inside a hollowed shell—they can reach in easily enough, but once they close their fist, they can’t take their hand out. The monkey may be screaming with distress, and still be unable to override the instinct to keep hold of the food.
Is there any evidence that this is more than a folk tale? It illustrates the point so well I never thought, until this afternoon, to confirm it as a fact. My efforts to do so have failed so far. The story itself is a kind of monkey trap… it gets held on to even when it isn’t real.
DanielLC: Thank you for your follow-up! I am not invested in the monkey trap being true or false, but I’d rather know if it was a folk tale or a fact before I speak of it in the future.
The video you found looks to me like a video of the folk tale, not evidence that monkeys have this behavior. I only speak English and American Sign Language, and so I don’t know how much the narration adds or takes away from the credibility of the video. The video appears scripted and the critical event of a monkey that won’t let go is shown as an animation, not as video. The video description says “The monkey trap is a metaphor for addictive emotional attachment among other things.” The links in the video go to a motivational speaker and “COMING SOON—GLOBAL SOLALIGN COMMUNITY.” There are plenty of motivational speakers talking about the monkey trap. I have yet to find confirmation of the monkey trap from a scientist who has a background in non-human primate behavior.
Evidence the monkey trap is fact would (I suggest) include something that: has been peer reviewed; names what kind of monkey; what group of men use this technique to capture a monkey; whether anyone outside that group of men observed the monkey trap in action and under what circumstances; why a monkey trap is better than a net / cage / gun; whether this monkey behavior has been observed in labs or zoos; etc.
If I trap 99 monkeys in a monkey trap, will the 100th figure it out? It seems to me the monkey trap is as much of a folk tale as the hundredth monkey. If only I had an infinite amount of monkeys to do random research on the issue...
A monkey can be trapped by a food reward inside a hollowed shell—they can reach in easily enough, but once they close their fist, they can’t take their hand out. The monkey may be screaming with distress, and still be unable to override the instinct to keep hold of the food.
Is there any evidence that this is more than a folk tale? It illustrates the point so well I never thought, until this afternoon, to confirm it as a fact. My efforts to do so have failed so far. The story itself is a kind of monkey trap… it gets held on to even when it isn’t real.
Here’s a youtube video of it: The Monkey Trap Is Not A Lemmings Myth
DanielLC: Thank you for your follow-up! I am not invested in the monkey trap being true or false, but I’d rather know if it was a folk tale or a fact before I speak of it in the future.
The video you found looks to me like a video of the folk tale, not evidence that monkeys have this behavior. I only speak English and American Sign Language, and so I don’t know how much the narration adds or takes away from the credibility of the video. The video appears scripted and the critical event of a monkey that won’t let go is shown as an animation, not as video. The video description says “The monkey trap is a metaphor for addictive emotional attachment among other things.” The links in the video go to a motivational speaker and “COMING SOON—GLOBAL SOLALIGN COMMUNITY.” There are plenty of motivational speakers talking about the monkey trap. I have yet to find confirmation of the monkey trap from a scientist who has a background in non-human primate behavior.
Evidence the monkey trap is fact would (I suggest) include something that: has been peer reviewed; names what kind of monkey; what group of men use this technique to capture a monkey; whether anyone outside that group of men observed the monkey trap in action and under what circumstances; why a monkey trap is better than a net / cage / gun; whether this monkey behavior has been observed in labs or zoos; etc.
If I trap 99 monkeys in a monkey trap, will the 100th figure it out? It seems to me the monkey trap is as much of a folk tale as the hundredth monkey. If only I had an infinite amount of monkeys to do random research on the issue...
Update: The story of The Boy and the Filberts goes back to 108 AD and perhaps earlier.