Monkey Like to Gamble

[DougShrapnel]

Does this come as a surprise to anyone here?

Monkey Gambling (http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050822_gambling_monkeys.html)

[Borodog]

That is awesome.

That beats the superstitious birds, and I thought that was cool.

Great article.

[imported_luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
Okay fine. So let's change the odds. In test two, the researchers made the average payoff for the risky target less than for the safe target.
"We found that they still preferred the risky target," Platt said. "Basically these monkeys really liked to gamble."


[/ QUOTE ]
No surprise to poker players in the results themselves, but” liked to gamble” could be a bit off the mark as a description of what’s occurring ( although it is more interesting in the media). Not that I’m claiming it’s wrong either.

Before ‘liked to gamble’ is taken as the explanation other things have to be weighed – the misjudging of the ‘risk-reward’ in the choices, for example. There’s lots of research illustrating how poor humans are at situations involving the simplest probabilities. The monkey could well ‘think’ he’s taking the best shot, a hunting mind could well be attracted to the prospect of the mother lode as bigger chunks of good stuff are found along this trail. Or, the furball could just be a closet Humean and have no faith that the steady supply is going to stay steady just because it has historically.

luckyme,
if I thought I was wrong, I’d change my mind