Then there is the stealing. Santos has observed that the monkeys never deliberately save any money, but they do sometimes purloin a token or two during an experiment. All seven monkeys live in a communal main chamber of about 750 cubic feet. For experiments, one capuchin at a time is let into a smaller testing chamber next door. Once, a capuchin in the testing chamber picked up an entire tray of tokens, flung them into the main chamber and then scurried in after them -- a combination jailbreak and bank heist -- which led to a chaotic scene in which the human researchers had to rush into the main chamber and offer food bribes for the tokens, a reinforcement that in effect encouraged more stealing.
Monkey Business
Aw, poor little monkeys. there they are, minding their own business, living their lives, and some evil scientist has to teach them the ins and outs of personal finances. Why why why? Aren't human behaviours plentiful enough to study? And aren't we just teaching the monkeys our ways? Of course they are mimicking human patterns. Of course they are resorting to similar habits, they are being taught exactly the same system of exchange. I don't think there is anything ground breaking here, only an exposure of two mens desire to control some vulnerable animals.
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