Monkey markets
June 30, 2009
Market economies are self-regulating, and we are usually satisfied with its ability to keep prices on essentials, such as gas and groceries, to a minimum. It is often assumed, however, that this kind of system was uniquely human — something we “invented” as our growing materialism demanded. But non-human animals also participate in the exchange of goods, and now there is evidence that the value of these goods fluctuates in response to supply and demand.
Ronald Noë and his colleagues at the University of Strasbourg, France created an artificial market in a group of vervet monkeys by providing food in a plastic box that only one member of the group could open. Sure enough, that individual received more grooming time — an exchangeable asset in the vervet community — from the other group members. When they introduced a second box that a different group member was trained to open, the first monkey’s stock value plummeted — that is, she did not receive as much grooming from her comrades. (Their findings are published in PNAS, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0812280106, and written up in NewScientist.)
This raises the question of what level of cognitive processing is required for the development of such market dynamics, and what other animal communities possess such striking similar economies to our own.
