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The Evolution of Irrationality - Insights from Monkeys

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Commonwealth Club of California

Commonwealth Club

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Partner:: Commonwealth Club
Location:: SF Club Office
San Francisco, CA
Event Date:: 03.22.12
Speaker:: Laurie Santos
Tags:: Behavioral Psychology; psychologist; cognition; primates; rationality; behavioral economics

Summary: The evolution of irrationality is discussed by Henry Tenenbaum, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Yale University; Director, Yale's Comparative Cognition Laboratory, KRON TV Feature Reporter- Moderator Santos, who has been called "the Monkey Whisperer," studies the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. She'll discuss her recent work on "monkey economics" and will show that some of the silly financial choices seen in humans can be observed in monkeys too. Come hear the intriguing thoughts of the woman recently voted one of Popular Science magazine's "Brilliant 10" Young Minds."

Bio

Laurie Santos

Laurie Santos is an associate professor of psychology at Yale University and the director of Yale University's Comparative Cognition Laboratory. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Biology from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard.

Her research explores the evolutionary origins of human cognition by studying the cognitive capacities present in non-human primates. She has investigated a number of topics in comparative cognition, including primates' understanding of others' minds, the origins of irrational decision-making, and the evolution of prosocial behavior.

Her scientific research has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, Forbes, The New Yorker, New Scientist, Smithsonian, and Discover.

She has also won numerous awards, both for her scientific achievements and for her teaching and mentorship. She is the recipient of Harvard University's George W. Goethals Award for Teaching Excellence, Yale University's Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Junior Faculty, and the Stanton Prize from the Society for Philosophy and Psychology for outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary research. She was recently voted one of Popular Science Magazine's "Brilliant 10" Young Minds.

Chapters

: Watch Full Program

01 hr 02 min 44 sec

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01.: Introduction

02 min 00 sec

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02.: Introduction to Primate Cognition

06 min 24 sec

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03.: Monkeys and Currency

04 min 03 sec

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04.: Economic Biases in Humans

04 min 59 sec

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05.: Economic Biases in Monkeys

02 min 49 sec

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06.: Experience Heuristics

06 min 32 sec

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07.: So What Does This All Mean?

06 min 36 sec

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08.: Q1: Evolutionary Benefit for Irrationality?

02 min 11 sec

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09.: Q2: Gender Differences?

01 min 06 sec

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10.: Q3: Excluding Chimpanzees?

00 min 50 sec

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11.: Q4: Liberal / Conservative Dichotomy?

02 min 04 sec

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12.: Q5: Reference Points?

02 min 11 sec

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13.: Q6: Impact on Economics?

00 min 55 sec

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14.: Q7: Awareness of Irrational Behaviors?

00 min 34 sec

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15.: Q8: Variance of Biases?

02 min 04 sec

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16.: Q9: Decision Time / Save Tokens?

01 min 20 sec

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17.: Q10: Baldwin Effect?

01 min 55 sec

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18.: Q11: Monkeys Studying Us?

02 min 49 sec

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19.: Q12: Cooperation vs. Theft?

03 min 24 sec

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20.: Q13: What's Next?

03 min 22 sec

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21.: Q14: Deciding to Study Monkeys?

02 min 11 sec

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22.: Q15: Sparking Science Education?

02 min 26 sec

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: Watch Full Program

01 hr 02 min 44 sec

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Are Monkeys Good With Money? Understanding Economic Bias

02 min 56 sec

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Professor of Psychology at Yale University Laurie Santos presents the findings of her study on whether capuchin monkeys show economic bias after teaching them how to use currency.
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01 hr 02 min 44 sec

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Encyclopædia Britannica Article

primate: Any of more than 300 species of the order Primates, including monkeys, apes, humans, and others. Primates are distinguished from other mammals by one or more of the following traits: unspecialized structure, specialized behaviour, a short muzzle, comparatively poor sense of smell, prehensile five-digit hands and feet possessing flat nails instead of claws, acute vision with depth perception due to forward-facing eyes, a large brain, and prolonged pre- and postnatal development. Most species bear a single young and live in troops headed by a male. The primates are one of the most diverse orders of mammals on Earth. They include the lemurs (more than 70 species in six families), the lorises (three or more species in one subfamily), the tarsiers (six or more species in one family), the New World monkeys (almost 100 species in five families), the Old World monkeys (more than 100 species in one family), and the apes and humans (about 20 species in two families). The oldest known fossil remains of primates are about 60 million years old.; primate on britannica.com