The Experiment That Taught Monkeys How to Use Money | Freakonomics
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode covers Yale economist Keith Chen's experiment teaching Capuchin monkeys to use money, revealing innate economic behaviors.
There are three key takeaways. First, economic principles like price response may be deeply ingrained in primate biology, not solely human culture. Second, introducing currency into any social system can quickly lead to complex and illicit behaviors, such as theft and prostitution. Third, non-human subjects model human economic behavior by stripping away cultural complexities.
The experiment showed monkeys associated coins with food, responding rationally to price changes and demonstrating consistent preferences. An emergent "monkey economy" developed, revealing unexpected discoveries like theft, bribery, and the first recorded monkey prostitution.
These insights suggest economic rationality is an innate trait. The presence of money universally triggers complex social dynamics, challenging the idea these behaviors are exclusively human.
This experiment offers a unique lens into the basic underpinnings of economic decision-making.
Episode Overview
- Describes an experiment by Yale economist Keith Chen to see if Capuchin monkeys could learn to use money.
- Explains how the monkeys learned to associate coins with food and began to exhibit rational economic behaviors, such as responding to price changes.
- Details how the monkeys developed their own "monkey economy," demonstrating consistent consumer preferences, much like humans.
- Culminates in the unexpected and accidental discovery of theft, bribery, and the first recorded instance of monkey prostitution.
Key Concepts
- Economic Rationality: The experiment tested whether monkeys, like humans, respond predictably to economic incentives and price changes, a core concept known as the law of demand.
- Expressed Preferences: The monkeys demonstrated the ability to use money to consistently reveal their individual tastes, with each monkey developing a preference for a specific food item.
- Price Shocks: An economic tool used in the experiment where the price of a monkey's favorite food was doubled to observe how it would alter their purchasing behavior.
- Emergent Economic Behavior: The introduction of currency into the monkey society led to complex and unforeseen behaviors that mirror human economies, including theft and the exchange of money for services other than food (sex).
Quotes
- At 00:19 - "What if I could get a bunch of monkeys and teach the monkeys to use money?" - The speaker outlines economist Keith Chen's core experimental question, setting the stage for the entire story.
- At 01:43 - "...it took on average about six months for these seven monkeys to learn that if you give a coin, then in exchange you get food." - Highlighting the significant time and effort required to teach the monkeys the fundamental concept of money as a medium of exchange.
- At 05:08 - "It is the first recorded instance of monkey prostitution in the history of science." - The speaker delivers the shocking and climactic finding of the experiment, revealing how deeply the monkeys' economic behavior began to mirror complex human society.
Takeaways
- The fundamental principles of economics, such as responding to price incentives, may be more deeply ingrained in primate biology than previously understood, rather than being purely a product of human culture.
- Introducing a medium of exchange (money) into any social system can quickly lead to the emergence of complex and illicit behaviors seen in human societies, such as theft and prostitution.
- Studying non-human subjects can serve as a powerful model for understanding the core drivers of human economic behavior by stripping away the complexities of culture and psychology.
