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…