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How scientists taught monkeys the concept of money
- brohee 15y agoFascinating. I didn't read (yet) the paper linked in the article, but was the prostitution case a male buying service from a female or something else?
- simcop2387 15y agoI took a look and couldn't find it anywhere in there. I think this may have come from outside the paper.
- paulmcohen 15y agoThe prostitution example is completely fictionalized. If an alpha male wants sex, he gets it, no questions asked.
- sharkbot 15y agoThe name Marc Hauser piqued my interest. He has been accused of scientific misconduct [1], and his research has been tainted. Take this article with a suitable grain of salt... [1] http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/harvard-dean-confirms-misconduct.html http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/harvard-de..., via Wikipedia
- starwed 15y agoAh, but he wasn't involved in this study -- one of the researchers had worked with him on a previous study, and that's why his name came up.
- tome 15y agoI nearly misread this for "How scientists taught monkeys the concept of monkey". That would have been an interesting self-awareness experience for the monkeys!
- libraryatnight 15y agoThe writing is atrocious. "...are the two researchers who have had made the study." or "It’s exactly this selfish desires that they tried to exploit and experiment with great success..." I barely made it through.
- scott_s 15y agoThe experimental description also leaves out key information in understanding what they did. I linked to the real paper in this thread which seems much more readable.
- jonhendry 15y agoI think Santos gave a TED talk, which might be better than this article. I saw her talk at Harvard Medical School when I was working there. She's a good speaker and gives an entertaining talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html
- generators 15y agoMan, previously I thought only monkeys knows the concept of money. Irony.
- scott_s 15y agoThe paper itself is quite readable: http://www.q-group.org/archives_folder/pdf/spring2008/ChenBehavioralBiases.pdf http://www.q-group.org/archives_folder/pdf/spring2008/ChenBe...
- reuser 15y agoToken economies are as old as the hills. It's also called "secondary reinforcement" - although cognitive psychologists will be bothered on ideological grounds if you reference any psychology from before 1950 or so
- spacefungus 15y agoThe description given is kind of weak in this particular article, but the other papers linked in this comment thread are pretty good. Apparently they're working on finding physiological mechanisms for this stuff, I was reading about it recently. Like, literally what chemicals in brains cause this sort of behavior. If I can find the link I'll post it...
- vorg 15y ago1. Teach some monkeys about money. 2. Let them loose in South America. 3. Wait a while. 4. Get some monkeys addicted to tobacco, let them loose, and wait longer. 5. Install surveillance stations in the jungle and start taxing the transactions. Some countries could do very well out of having a sudden influx of Pan citizens.