Monkeys Pay for Monkey Porn

An anonymous reader writes "Give a monkey some spending money, and he'll blow it on pictures of women monkeys. He'll also pay to see dominant monkeys. But you'll have to pay him to look at inferior monkeys. That's the upshot of a study out of Duke that was designed to explore the 'social machinery of the brain with an eye toward helping autism patients.' Next up -- seriously -- the researchers want to run the same test on Joe Sixpack (sans the monkey business)."

Comments

So, HOW can monkeys tell who is dominant

[Anonymous Coward]

In a very un-Slashdot-like manner, I have actually read the article (It was on Fark.com before Slashdot picked it up). I find the following part interesting:

Curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not.

"So, somehow, they are getting this information by observation -- by seeing other individuals interact," said Michael Platt of the Duke University Medical Center.

So, the question is: How are the monkeys able to see who is dominant and who is not?

Bestiality

[britneys 9th husband]

Ok, silly question...

If a male monkey gets off on looking at pictures of naked (human) women, is that considered bestiality?

Re:Ig Noble Prize Material

[johnlcallaway]

I must disagree. I have read several books that attempt to show coorelation between primate behavior and many human behaviors. These studies are important in the nature/nurture arguments and important in learning how to treat social and mental disorders.

Besides, anything that strengthens the argument that watching p0rn is natural gets my vote for futher funding.

Missing the point: A cure is not needed

[Johnny Fusion]

From the article: "One of the main problems in people with autism is that they don't find it very motivating to look at other individuals," Platt said.

This is an attitude of what those comfortable with Autism call a "curebie". I am the parent of a wonderful boy who happens to have autsim, and I can tell you, he is no need of a "cure".

Autism is categorized as a system-wide neurological disorder. A "disorder" because the system of an autistic individual deviates from what is considered "normal". These are most likely inherited traits. To "cure" autism would pretty much be a system of eugenics. Once born with these traits, there is no cure. Just as there would be no cure for left-handedness or red hair. This is not an acquired disease, this is who these people are.

Not being comfortable with looking at someone in the face is not the end of the world. I hope to teach my son coping mechanisms to live in a world that does not make sense to him, there is no need for him to pretend to not be autistic and fit in with the Neurotypical folk.

As cool as it is that monkeys like porn as much as the average slashdotter, this research in my opinion is misguided.

Re:Humans already do this

[MrByte420]

I'm a gay man who likes to watch sports and found the joke to be rather whimsical.

Whats halrious is that Queen, headed by the flamboyantly gay Freddy Mercury, wrote lots of the songs that you hear at football games e.g. "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions..."