Monkeys, like humans, persist at tasks they’ve already invested in

Published on December 18, 2020

Humans are generally reluctant to give up on something they’ve already committed time and effort to. It’s called the ‘sunk costs’ phenomenon, where the more resources we sink into an endeavor, the likelier we are to continue — even if we sense it’s futile. A new study shows that both capuchin monkeys and rhesus macaques are susceptible to the same behavior and that it occurs more often when the monkeys are uncertain about the outcome.

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