International
You might have seen a viral video in which a monkey in a zoo is surprised by a simple magic trick, but it turns out that not all monkeys are so easily fooled. International researchers have shown that only monkeys with opposable thumbs, like ours, are fooled by a magic trick known as the 'french drop'. The 'french drop' involves pretending to pass an object from one hand to another by gripping it between thumb and forefingers and the researchers found that only the species with full or partial opposable thumbs were tricked by it, just like humans. When they tried the trick with a different grip, which all primates can perform (power grip) all the monkeys were tricked. The authors say it suggests that our own physical capability heavily influences our perception and prediction of others’ manual movements.
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