Perhaps you’ve come across a viral video featuring a monkey in a zoo being astonished by a simple magic trick. However, it seems that not every monkey is so effortlessly deceived.

You may have come across a popular video of a monkey in a zoo being astonished by a basic magic trick, but it appears that not every monkey can be so easily fooled.

A new experiment conducted by international researchers has discovered that only monkeys possessing opposable thumbs, akin to humans, are tricked by a magic technique referred to as the “French drop.”

The “French drop” is a magic trick that simulates transferring an object between hands by holding it between the thumb and forefingers.

Researchers discovered that, similar to humans, only species with complete or partial opposable thumbs were deceived by this illusion.

When they tried the trick with a different grip (power grip), which all primates can do, all of the monkeys were fooled. It seems, according to the authors, that our capacity to move physically has a significant impact on how we perceive and anticipate the manual actions of others.

Source: Monkey fooled by a trick

Image Credit: Stil from the video