Wheat: Can monkeys mislead?
"...like the anxiety a hungry postdoc feels watching the chip bowl at a party from across the room as the faculty bore you are stuck with drones on and on... "
Can monkeys mislead?
By Jef Akst, The Scientist.com, 2009-06-03
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55746/
Well, the neurocurmudgeons are grudgingly calling this 'wheat" - although at best it qualifies as gleanings. We like it because it acknowledges the difficulties of inferring intentions from observing behaviors. It also should give pause to those who are quick to impose on animals all kinds of human traits. Or those who like to infer mountains of meaning from molehills of fMRI data. SO why can't we just be cheerful for once and not complain? Here's the rub. So... subordinate monkeys hiccup - a call used to signal danger (or at least that is how we humans interpret it) - to make the bigger, mean monkeys leave the food table so the littler monkeys can eat. Or maybe they hiccup because they are stressed because they see the food going away fast - like the anxiety a hungry postdoc feels watching the chip bowl at a party from across the room as the faculty bore you are stuck with drones on and on... Or maybe it’s a learned response - hiccup, the big monkeys flee, and the little monkeys eat. But sooner or later wouldn't the bigger monkeys also learn that the little monkeys are crying wolf (the NCs apologize for the mixing of animal metaphors)and ignore the hiccups? Heck - even the Aplysia eventually stops withdrawing its gill. So -- while this piece struck us as making some good points -- we are still left wondering why The Scientist even bothered. Slow science news week? Hopefully, all the stimulus funding will help with that.
