On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:34:01 +0100, "Robert J. Newmark" <newmark@???>
wrote:
> e SI, NON ho pieta' per i clienti di quelle prostitute. Non credo nel
> carcere, ma du bastonate gliele darei, pure se fosse mi padre.
Attenzione, ti metti contro a forze potentissime.
Microeconomist Keith Chen taught capuchin monkeys to use money, to use
coins to buy food, and when he changed the relative cost of various foods —
Jell-O cubes, apple slices — they made good decisions based on price. But
then something happened …
Out of the corner of his eye, Chen saw something remarkable. One monkey,
rather than handing his coin over to the humans for a grape or a slice of
apple, instead approached a second monkey and gave it to her. Chen had done
earlier research in which monkeys were found to be altruistic. Had he just
witnessed an unprompted act of monkey altruism?
After a few seconds of grooming — bam! — the two capuchins were having
sex. What Chen had seen wasn’t altruism at all, but rather the first
instance of monkey prostitution in the recorded history of science.
And then, just to prove how thoroughly the monkeys had assimilated the
concept of money, as soon as the sex was over — it lasted about eight
seconds; they’re monkeys, after all — the capuchin who’d received the coin
promptly brought it over to Chen to purchase some grapes.
