Related story (an experiment from some sick university, iirc), same theme:
Batch of a dozen or so monkeys. Bananas hanging from ceiling, with nearby large rope. Monkeys being monkeys, one climbed the rope to go for the bananas. As a result, all the monkeys were punished -- fire hoses, iirc. It only took once or twice before any monkey who tried to climb for the bananas got drug off the rope by the other monkeys, who didn't feel like getting punished.
Then they started swapping out monkeys. The new monkey, inevitably, would try to climb, but be dragged down by the others. Eventually, they swapped out all the monkeys, so none of the monkeys actually in the cage had been group-punished. Still, they'd beat down anyone who tried to climb for the prize.
Laugh and say "stupid monkeys," then realize that humans do the same thing. lol
Dan