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Curated Sermon Illustrations on Envy
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Monkeys & Comparison
In their book Friend and Foe, social psychologists Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer cite a study by Emory University scientist Frans de Waal regarding comparison. De Waal trained capuchin monkeys to use stones as a sort of currency, learning to trade one of the stones for a slice of cucumber. The monkeys were perfectly content with this agreement as long as they were both getting the same thing—a slice of cucumber—in exchange for the stone. Then de Waal changed the social dynamic. One monkey was given a sweet grape instead of the cucumber slice, and the other went berserk.
Now comparing itself with the other, the monkey became irate, refusing to trade the stones for the cucumbers and sometimes even throwing the cucumber slice back in the face of the trainer. In one instance, the monkey went to the back of the cage and sulked, refusing to eat the cucumber. Meanwhile, the first monkey stole the slice and ate both the cucumber and the grape. Galinsky and Schweitzer conclude, “Just as monkeys eating cucumbers care about comparisons, so too do modern humans.” When we are controlled by comparison, our God-given dignity is reduced to animal instinct and the community of love is poisoned by a need to measure ourselves against others.
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