Like humans, apes throw temper tantrums, too

[jakeXT]

Chimpanzees and bonobos have temper tantrums when their decisions don't play out as they'd hoped, hinting that humans aren't the only species to let emotions influence their choices.
These non-human apes pout, whimper, scratch themselves and bang on things when a risky choice fails to pay off or when they have to wait for a desired reward, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
"Even though animals don't engage in economic behavior like humans with money, the psychological skills that humans bring to the table when making economic decisions seem to be shared with animals," said study leader Alexandra Rosati, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Yale University. [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates]
Emotional choices
Humans have the power of logic, but that doesn't always mean they use it. Multiple studies of decision-making have found that emotions play a big role in choices, particularly when information is complicated or incomplete. Humans also anticipate their own emotional reactions to various outcomes when making choices, Rosati told LiveScience. For example, people who know they'll feel great regret if they lose at gambling tend to gamble less than those who don't feel the pain of loss as keenly.

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/29/18592356-like-humans-apes-throw-temper-tantrums-too?lite

[pipoman]

1. Which is a really good reason to keep captive animals

in cages, eh? Imagine if the most irrational humans who throw temper tantrums had the strength to roll a car over..

[pokerfan]

2. Not only apes...

but monkeys as well:

He said when both monkeys are rewarded with cucumber they are perfectly willing to perform the task 25 times in a row.

But he went on: "Now if you give the partner grapes, a far better food, then you create inequity between them."

Prof de Waal and his colleague, Sarah Brosnan, originally published their findings in the journal Nature in 2003 and the study has since been repeated with dogs, birds and chimpanzees.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4659417/Monkey-experiment-video-goes-viral.html#ixzz2UmgeoSPS

[Orsino]

3. But apes rarely onrder the invasion of Iraq. n/t