ON LOSS AVERSION IN CAPUCHIN MONKEYS

Chen, Lakshminarayanan, and Santos (2006) claim to show in three choice experiments that monkeys react rationally to price and wealth shocks, but, when faced with gambles, display hallmark, human‐like biases that include loss aversion. We present three experiments with monkeys and humans consistent...

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Published inJournal of the experimental analysis of behavior Vol. 89; no. 2; pp. 145 - 155
Main Authors Silberberg, Alan, Roma, Peter G., Huntsberry, Mary E., Warren-Boulton, Frederick R., Sakagami, Takayuki, Ruggiero, Angela M., Suomi, Stephen J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2008
Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Inc
Subjects
Affect
Animal Behavior
Animals
Avoidance Learning
Behavior, Animal
Behavioral Science Research
Bias
Biological Evolution
Cebus
choice
Choice Behavior
Conditioning
Contingency Management
Delay of Gratification
delay of reinforcement
Enrichment
Expected values
Experimental Psychology
Experiments
Feeding Behavior
Female
Females
Food
Humans
loss aversion
Male
Males
monkeys
Preferences
prospect theory
Reinforcement
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Responses
reversed contingency
Stimuli
token exchange
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Summary:Chen, Lakshminarayanan, and Santos (2006) claim to show in three choice experiments that monkeys react rationally to price and wealth shocks, but, when faced with gambles, display hallmark, human‐like biases that include loss aversion. We present three experiments with monkeys and humans consistent with a reinterpretation of their data that attributes their results not to loss aversion, but to differences between choice alternatives in delay of reinforcement.
Bibliography:istex:F608FEDB169A59A803826A38CF3D548AFAC5521F
ark:/67375/WNG-KXDQB1G2-1
ArticleID:JEAB3717
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In Experiment 1, Chen et al. (2006) showed that monkeys' response to a compensated price change was consistent with the generalized axiom of revealed preferences. This result joins demonstrations of income effects, Giffen goods and the like in linking human economic behavior to that seen in nonhuman primates (e.g., Silberberg, Warren-Boulton, & Asano, 1987). Experiment 1 is not discussed further because it makes no claim for demonstrating the phenomenon the present report targets, that of loss aversion.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
0022-5002
DOI:10.1901/jeab.2008.89-145