# talking about monkeys, an experiment..
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-about-monkeys-an-experiment/158262
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 28, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-about-monkeys-an-experiment/158262 "2003-02-28T23:16:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-about-monkeys-an-experiment/158262/1 "2003-02-28T23:16:50Z")
i got these thru the email sometime back, what i want to ask is if the said experiment is plausible? _shugs_ it does sounds ok to me… 🙂
> [@](#):
>
> Policy
>
> Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
>
> Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
>
> Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.
>
> Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
>
> After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.
>
> Why not?
>
> Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here.
>
> And that, my friends, is how company policy begins.
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### Author:  [@vertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertigo)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-about-monkeys-an-experiment/158262/2 "2003-03-01T01:32:11Z")
I think a lot of organized religions fall into this category. My guess is that a lot of ritual and law is based on something no one remembers anymore. Now they just do it because of the tradition. No one wants to mess with it and no one is going to question it either (being that God wants it that way, right?). I only use religion as an example because there is definitely a sense in many of them that if you question you will get in trouble (go to Hell, that sort of thing). But I’m sure that there are a lot of examples of where people are doing things by tradition and have no idea how or why it started, but part of the tradition is to not question it either. If people did go against it and didn’t get “sprayed with cold water”, then the tradition would likely die. The only difference between humans and the monkeys is that we can use language to tell all future generations of newcomers why we don’t touch the banana. You have to take that part out of the mix so that no one is compelled to ask and no one feels obligated to point out any competing reasons why the banana is bad.
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### Author:  [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-about-monkeys-an-experiment/158262/3 "2003-03-01T13:49:44Z")
Plausible? WAG: sooner or later some lazy/corrupt/troublemaking/motivated/naive/wiseguy monkey is going to stop enforcing the rule, or is going to go for the banana regardless.