A fascinating study from Germany reveals that monkeys become more socially selective as they age.
You might be surprised about what we can learn from monkeys about ourselves. According to a recent study published in the journal Cell, scientists studying social and cognitive aging in a large group of monkeys of different ages reveals a fascinating pattern.
As the monkeys grew older, scientists showed that they became more selective. Not unlike people, researchers found that as they got older, monkeys became choosier about the ways they spent their time and which other individuals they spent it with. Researchers believe the findings can offer insights into how people act as they age.
Researchers carried out a series of experimental and behavioral tests on a group of Barbary macaques to see the differences between age groups. According to study author Laura Almeling of the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, “An important psychological theory suggests that humans become more socially selective when they know that their remaining life time is limited, such as in old age. We assume that monkeys are not aware of their own limited future time. Therefore, if they show similar motivational changes in old age, their selectivity cannot be attributed to their knowledge about a limited future time. Instead, we should entertain the possibility that similar physiological changes in aging monkeys and humans contribute to increased selectivity.”
Researchers found that as the monkeys aged, they became less interested in novel objects and only seemed to care about food. They also found that aging monkeys maintained an interest in socially significant individuals, but engaged in fewer interactions of their own initiation.
The study suggests that monkeys, much like humans, naturally become more socially selective as they get older. “Changes in social behavior in monkeys and humans may occur in the absence of a limited time perspective and are most likely deeply rooted in primate evolution,” said team member Alexandra Freund from the University of Zurich.
A press release describing the details of the study can be found here.