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September 18, 2003
Devolution Administration
But when one capuchin saw the other receive a grape while it received only a cucumber, the seeds of unrest were sown.
In some cases, the monkey that was being short-changed would pay its token but refuse to accept the cucumber. Sometimes it would refuse to pay and would stop participating in the experiment. Refusing a food item of any type is very rare behavior in a capuchin, Brosnan says.
In more extreme cases, when one capuchin saw the other receive a grape for free -- without having to pay the token -- the unfairly treated capuchin would throw away its cucumber although it had paid for it.
--USA Today: Researchers find monkeys have sense of fair play, getting ripped off
See? Even a monkey knows the difference between fair and unfair. Yet so many Americans are satisfied with a cucumber (a $300 tax rebate and/or a $400 child credit) and aren't smart enough to realize that some millionaire hairless ape is getting a grape (an $87,000 tax cut).
Brosnan, who said she is now conducting similar studies with chimpanzees, noted that the capuchin that got the grape didn't react at all to the unjustness of the situation. That "probably implies there is still a lot of difference between their sense of fairness and ours," she said.
--AP: Study Shows Monkeys May Resent Unfairness
I beg to differ.
Posted by glyphic at September 18, 2003 06:57 PM