I've heard that story. I've yet to see evidence it actually happened though. I don't the experiment with pass a modern ethics panel either.
replyI stand corrected:
https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2012/11/03/monkeys-and-in...
replyparables that didn't happen can still be useful
replyThe parable-replication crisis is real though
replyThey can be, but you need to take care as sometimes they are misleading and can even drive wrong decisions.
replyAesop wrote a lot of fables that had contradictory lessons.
replyI have more than once in life realized that one of the two contradictory lessons was correct for this situation, but in a different one the other was correct...
replyThere's a meta-lesson there.
replyIt's funny how this monkey experiment is often trotted out as "people blindly follow the rules without knowing why," when the rule learned by the monkeys is a really good rule (it prevents a malevolent entity beyond your understanding from attacking you!), and the only reason the monkeys don't understand the "why" at the end of the experiment is because they don't have language.
replyThe lessons I'd take away from the experiment would be 1) be sure to tell people why the rules exist, but also 2) follow the rules even if there's no apparent reason for them, otherwise you might get smacked down by some unimaginably powerful entity you're barely even aware of.