Monkeys have a "highly developed sense of fairness"

Apparently, some female capuchin monkeys have been trained to exchange tokens for food, and they even get angry when they know that other monkeys are exchanging the same number of tokens for better food. Really - I couldn't make this up if I wanted to. The researchers have inferred that this behavior developed so that individual monkeys in a group can show their fellow monkeys that they believe they're being treated unfairly.

The implications of this behavior for humans remain untested, but those of us who favor prices being set by transparent markets might draw some comfort from it.
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:21 AM