Monkey See, Monkey Drink

After reading a fascinating article about how extremely genetically similar monkeys are to humans, I was lead to read some other articles about how the behavior of monkeys mimics humans in particularly strange ways. Namely, boozing after work, looking at porn, and stealing.

When given the choice between a photo of a low-status male with a high juice reward and a photo of a female’s hindquarters, the male test subjects refused the extra juice so that they could gaze at the sexy female images. They also “paid” with juice to see photos of high-status males.

Facts about Monkeys:

1. When placed in front of a mirror, high-status monkeys spent 41% of their time looking at themselves, while low-status monkeys only spent 19%
2. Some heavier-drinking monkeys will just drink until they fall asleep
3. Monkeys drink much less socially than when they are alone
4. Lower-ranked monkeys drink more
5. Monkeys drink the most after a long week of testing
6. Monkeys will only steal from you if you are looking away or seem to be not paying attention
7. The harnessing of fire may be the pivotal moment that separated our species