What Happened When Monkeys Were Taught To Use Money?

It's been said that money is the root of all evil, and while I don't believe that, I sure don't think it's a force for good either. It's a huge part of a system that takes power from vast majority of people and gives it to the very few. It tricks people into putting wealth outside of themselves, and to chase after money instead of searching for the vast riches that lie within. Is this human nature, or does money corrupt? To help answer this question, we ask another, what would happen if monkeys were taught to use money?

…in a clean and spacious laboratory at Yale-New Haven Hospital, seven capuchin monkeys have been taught to use money, and a comparison of capuchin behavior and human behavior will either surprise you very much or not at all, depending on your view of humans…

When taught to use money, a group of capuchin monkeys responded quite rationally to simple incentives; responded irrationally to risky gambles; failed to save; stole when they could; used money for food and, on occasion, sex. In other words, they behaved a good bit like the creature that most of Chen's more traditional colleagues study: Homo sapiens.

Full article… (nytimes.com)