Monkeys...have a rudimentary concept of economic choice, and researchers have discovered a medium of exchange-Berry Berry fruit drink-that can usefully stand in for money in a monkey's mental life.
To illustrate how monkeys make economic decisions, Glimcher's former colleague Michael Platt, now at Duke, has investigated how they value status within their troop. Male monkeys have a distinct dominance hierarchy, and Platt has found they will give up a considerable quantity of fruit juice for the chance just to look at a picture of a higher-ranking individual. This is consistent with field observations, Platt says, which have found that social primates spend a lot of time just keeping track of the highest-ranking troop member. It isn't known exactly why monkeys do this, but the finding might help explain the behavior of human beings who pay $1,000 just to sit in a hotel ballroom with the president. You can draw whatever conclusion you choose from Platt's finding that there is no quantity of juice sufficient to get a male monkey to look away from the hindquarters of a female in estrus.
The thing that's even more disturbing is in humans whatever is the sexual fetish is to a large extent social programmed, like the ancient Chinese fondness for bound feet, or the modern Western fondness for large breasts.
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