Here’s a quick test to see if you are smarter than a monkey. Don’t worry, it turns out that monkeys are pretty smart. First, answer the poll question, then continue onwards to read an explanation. Vote first!
(Due to some technical hurdles, please click on the “Read the rest of this entry…” link below to vote! Thanks :))
You are given $1,000. Which option would you choose? You must choose one.
Total Voters: 840
You are given $2,000. Which option would you choose? You must choose one.
Total Voters: 853
You did answer the poll first, right?
First, there is no right or wrong answer to the question above (read on for why). I got the inspiration for this experiment from a newly posted TED Talk video sent to me by reader Hedy. Researcher Laurie Santos studies monkeynomics – exploring how monkeys make economic decisions similar to those that humans have to make. You’ve probably heard of behavioral economics, and how humans don’t always make decisions on a purely rational basis. The experiment above dealt with relativity and loss aversion.
The poll you just took was one of two possible polls, randomly selected. (Due to blog cache issues, this won’t be perfectly random every single time, but hopefully close enough.) Either question given is technically the same – either you choose a 50/50 chance between $2,000 and $1,000, or you picked a safe $1,500. But how the question was framed often changes how a human answers. I’ll share the poll results in a day or two (I want a decent sample size). How do monkeys do when faced with the same problem? Watch the video for the answer. (If short on time, skip to time 10:50.)