Skip to content

Monkeys will pay to look at porn

In a finding that deepens our understanding of animal social cognition, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have demonstrated for the first time that monkeys, like humans, value information according to its social content. People readily pay to see powerful or sexually attractive individuals, and, according to this new study, monkeys will also "pay" to view these kinds of images.

Both economics and evolutionary theory predict that animals should selectively acquire information about others that is most useful for guiding behavior. In most monkey social groups, behavior is structured by kinship, dominance, and reproductive status, suggesting that social information should be valued according to these attributes. While previous studies had shown that monkeys would work to see other monkeys, no one knew whether the value they placed on seeing other individuals was related to the social relevance of those individuals.

In the new work, researchers Robert Deaner, Amit Khera and Michael Platt, all of Duke University Medical Center, tested this hypothesis by measuring how much fruit juice monkeys would accept or forgo to see photographs of familiar monkeys, permitting the researchers to compare monkeys' valuation of different types of social information. Male monkeys "paid" in juice to view female hindquarters or high-ranking monkeys' faces, but required "overpayment" to view low-ranking monkeys' faces. Despite living in a captive colony, the value monkeys placed on information about potential sexual partners and powerful individuals matched the relative importance of these individuals for behavioral success in the wild. This study demonstrates that monkeys assess visual information by its social value and provides the first experimental evidence that they spontaneously discriminate between images of others based on the social rank or classification of individuals.

From Cell Press

January 27, 2005

Comments

Grammar, Spelling?

April 11, 2009 by Anonymous, 11 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 36047

Hello: Monkeys can be taught to use spell checker. Your site shows little concern for spelling and grammar. Makes you just as ignorant as the people you are trying to reach.

So

May 7, 2008 by Anonymous, 1 year 8 weeks ago
Comment id: 29685

There is no Monkey Porn here? Damn it Google.....

science

April 14, 2008 by Anonymous, 1 year 11 weeks ago
Comment id: 29030

that is very wrong thatpeople make monkeys pay for porn.this can ruen their mind sinse are very smart mameLes.this should stop

Animals are more developed

August 2, 2007 by clyopa (not verified), 1 year 48 weeks ago
Comment id: 24420

Animals are more developed than we think.
We have always believed that animals can't have dreams, lately it was proved that they can. I suppose we know very little about them and there is still much to learn.

Post new comment



About us

Science Blog was started in August 2002. It lives, breathes and eats press releases from research organizations around the globe. Most of what you read here are press releases from the outfits named in the stories themselves. Got a news story you think belongs here? Let's talk. The other half of the equation is blog posts from readers like you. So if you have an interest in science, please register and join others like you in an ongoing, vibrant dialog about what makes the world tick. Meantime, please take a minute to read our Privacy Policy and Site Disclaimer.