Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs

April 6, 2023 7:40 AM

By performing a famous magic trick for three species of monkey with differing hand structures, scientists have discovered that – in order to deceive – a conjuror needs the same anatomy as their audience.
posted by Etrigan (23 comments total)

I wonder if they thought of doing it the other way around, teaching magic to different species of monkeys to see which can fool us.

On second thought it’s probably safer the way they did it. Having a bunch of monkeys after the experiment seems like it could only cause problems.
posted by aubilenon at 7:45 AM on April 6, 2023 [7 favorites]

teaching magic to different species of monkeys to see which can fool us.

I mean, this sounds like an amazing pitch for a comic or tv series.
posted by Fizz at 7:47 AM on April 6, 2023 [10 favorites]

After reading the article, I wonder whether people born with limb differences would see through the trick as well.
posted by jedicus at 7:48 AM on April 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

Study senior author Nicola Clayton as the mystery guest on Would I Lie To You.
posted by biogeo at 7:51 AM on April 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

In the videos, the monkeys always go for the right hand. That seems to be maybe more significant? Though maybe it is just a bad video.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:06 AM on April 6, 2023

After reading the article, I wonder whether people born with limb differences would see through the trick as well.

I expect a lifetime of living with people who have opposable thumbs would give you the insight needed to predict the action.

I wonder whether a monkey with non-opposable thumbs who lived with humans for a long while might be better able to predict, or in this case, be deceived?
posted by explosion at 9:42 AM on April 6, 2023

I expect a lifetime of living with people who have opposable thumbs would give you the insight needed to predict the action.

But if not then it could indicate a degree to which intelligence (or at least a particular kind of reasoning) is embodied. One way to try to control for experiential insight would be to include young children, with and without limb differences, in the experiment.

If even young children born with limb differences were tricked, then it could still be the case that, rather than requiring direct embodiment, the human mind is innately wired to be able to reason about opposable thumbs. So that result wouldn't necessarily be as strong as the other direction.
posted by jedicus at 9:52 AM on April 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Primates with opposable thumbs apparently lack common sense understanding of the world, and thus demonstrate lack of cognitive capacity for basic reasoning. Since they are prune to over index on their basic biomechanical mechanisms, we can classify these animals as 'thumby parrots': what appears to be complex reasoning is actually simple projection of their expectations about their environment based on many thousands of hours of interactions.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:01 AM on April 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

Makes you wonder if octopi and insects are doing magic tricks for us, but we just fail to notice because we don't have tentacles or tarsi.
posted by touchstone033 at 12:30 PM on April 6, 2023 [13 favorites]

An octopus tried to tell me a joke once but I didn't notice.
posted by flabdablet at 12:55 PM on April 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

An octopus tried to tell me a joke once but I didn't notice.

Happened to me once, too. I didn’t laugh, but it sure made me ink!
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:38 PM on April 6, 2023 [12 favorites]

Well I'm uncomfortable. The first trick didn't fool me. The modified one did. I mean I knew from context which was correct, but still my instinct was the wrong hand on the modified one.

I have opposable thumbs.

Someone explain that.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 2:03 PM on April 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

An octopus tried to tell me a joke once but I didn't notice.

A lobster with a boob job made up a joke my kids love. Animals - they funny.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:28 PM on April 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

We have also established dogs do not like sleight of hand tricks.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:31 PM on April 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

Someone explain that.

OK, sure. Opposable thumbs are thumbs that can touch the tips of any of your other digits, and they let you firmly grasp and manipulate objects of many different shapes. Shorter thumbs and longer fingers are helpful for climbing, and our ancestors evolved opposable thumbs that helped them grasp branches. Humans have the longest thumbs in proportion to other digits that any other primate. Human hands can grip with strength and with fine control, so they can throw a baseball or sign a name on the dotted line, usually not at the same time.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:00 PM on April 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

An octopus once told me almost a dozen jokes; I got ten tickles out of them!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:25 PM on April 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

This is the second time in as many weeks a story I heard first on Boonta Vista has landed on the blue. That’s a good thing! It’s Plapril!
posted by slogger at 5:13 PM on April 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've seen dogs though be surprised though and they don't have opposable thumbs.
posted by Carillon at 8:27 PM on April 6, 2023

One way to try to control for experiential insight would be to include young children, with and without limb differences, in the experiment.

Children are very difficult to perform stage magic for. They can see right past your bullshit if you mess up, because they don't really have much in the way of preconceived notions. Adults, meanwhile, are overly invested in being "smart" to the point of tying themselves up in mental knots - making them much easier to fool.

(I performed stage magic for a time but all my stuff is for adults only. people keep wanting to hire me for kid stuff and I'm like "what about my signature act being the Menstrual Cups and Balls codes kid-friendly to you???")
posted by creatrixtiara at 12:50 AM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is it the dildo balloon animals?

I bet it's the dildo balloon animals.
posted by flabdablet at 4:48 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

The mean scientists didn’t give fooled monkeys treats. They lost me right there.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 8:07 AM on April 7, 2023

I feel like this is somehow analogous to AI image generators not being able to draw hands.
posted by snofoam at 3:31 PM on April 7, 2023

There are plento of videos of cats confused by magic tricks, so I think this research should be read very narrowly
posted by cheshyre at 5:48 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]