Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Secret Life of Monkeys


A 2005 Duke University study found that macaque monkeys preferred to follow a "risker" target, which gave them varying amounts of juice, over a "safe" one, which always gave the same - they just like gambling. Intriguingly, the monkeys preferred the riskier target even when it gave them consistently less juice than the same one, and continued to choose the riskier target in the face of diminishing returns when a single large one was still in memory.

- From Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling by David G. Schwartz

This explains much.

Not the least of which is why some primates, most notably the Middleboro Board of Selectmen and Friends continue to support, embrace, champion and believe in the continuing long shot of a casino in their midst.

Keep on reachin' for that rainbow Middleboro Board and Friends.

...I mean macaques.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I kind of thought there should have been a connection some where between monkeys and gambling types. Gladys you are the bomb for finding this.

Anonymous said...

Gladys, you continue to amaze with the interesting issues that you raise surrounding gambling. This makes such great sense!
When I was a child, I had one of those heavy banks with an organ grinder's monkey shooting my pennies into the reservoir. Most of the time the monkey missed the slot. Maybe as a child, I learned not to trust my money to a monkey and don't gamble.

Anonymous said...

To paraphrase Charleton Heston in "Planet of the Apes"....

Keep your filthy hands off my town you dirty apes!


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