A study reported in Nature magazine reports that monkeys have a surprisingly well developed sense of fairness, a trait often thought limited to human society that “socially constructs” it.
Researchers taught monkeys to trade tokens for food — minimally acceptable cucumbers and highly prized grapes. When both monkeys in test pairs were rewarded with the same prize everything was fine, but when one monkey was given cucumbers and the other grapes for no apparent reason, the monkeys given cucumbers responded in various ways expressing that were miffed at being treated unfairly. Really.
So what? Well, the indefatigable Howard Bashman, citing the Nature report and one other (though he doesn’t link this one from USA Today), says this study may provide a “possible solution to the judicial confirmation morass,” although, being a minimalist and generally reticent about his own opinions, he doesn’t say how.
I think Howard missed the boat on this one. It’s pretty clear to me that the study proves that a system of preferences will offend the ingrained sense of fairness of all un-preferred monkeys. So far as I can tell from the reports, however, the study did not attempt to determine if the monkeys who unfairly got the grapes developed any guilt or doubts about their abilities.
There was one interesting twist noted in the Nature article:
Only female monkeys show this pique, the researchers found. Males were much less sensitive to inequality. Their minds may have been on other things, says Janson [a primatologist at SUNY Stony Brook]: “Males care about sex, and females care about food. The males might not consider the food differences worth worrying about.”
Perhaps this suggests that preferences should be limited to males.
