Think first impressions are important? So do chimps. They’re more judgmental than creationists! From Science Daily:
Chimpanzees make judgments about the actions and dispositions of strangers by observing others’ behavior and interactions in different situations. Specifically, chimpanzees show an ability to recognize certain behavioral traits and make assumptions about the presence or absence of these traits in strangers in similar situations thereafter. These findings are by Dr. Francys Subiaul - from the George Washington University in Washington DC - and his team.
Character judgments are an essential feature of cooperative exchanges between humans, and we use them to predict future behavioral interactions. A system for attributing reputation is therefore expected in any species which needs to assess the behavior of others and to predict the outcomes of future interactions. Chimpanzees have sophisticated social skills and there is evidence that primates eavesdrop and benefit from third-party interactions. Could they have a system for forming reputation judgments across a wide variety of contexts like humans?
Sounds like they are getting their own covert operations teams up and running! Does CIA stand for Chimp Intelligence Agency? If we don’t keep an eye on them it might.
In a series of three experiments, Dr. Subiaul and colleagues looked at whether chimpanzees learn the reputation of strangers indirectly by observation, or by first-hand experience. Seven chimpanzees observed unfamiliar humans either consistently give (’generous’ donor) or refuse to give (’selfish’ donor) food to either a familiar human recipient or another chimp.
In the first experiment, after observing humans either give or refuse food to familiar humans, chimps were in turn given the opportunity to gesture to either the ’selfish’ or the ‘generous’ human. There was no marked preference for either donor. However, in a second experiment, the researchers evaluated whether prolonged observation and first-hand experience would allow chimps to generalize this social rule—pertaining to the reputation of strangers—to new humans. In this experiment, the chimpanzees showed a strong preference for the new generous donor.
They were able to predict which new donor was generous, based entirely on observation. In a third experiment, chimpanzees (rather than humans) were the recipients of either ’selfish’ or ‘generous’ acts. The results of this last experiment replicated the results of the second experiment in a new context and using novel ‘generous’ and ’selfish’ acts, demonstrated that chimpanzees are flexible and astute social problem-solvers, capable of attributing reputation to strangers by eavesdropping on interactions between others.
The authors conclude that their results demonstrate chimpanzees’ ability “to infer stability in an individual’s character or behavior over time through observation – an inference that underlies the ability to make reputation judgments…This ability may have served as a catalyst to the evolution of various uniquely human traits such as shared intentionality, language and reasoning.”
Assumptions and snap judgments exist for a reason. It’s used to protect us as well as advance our current situation. Sure we may be wrong with our initial assessments, but the initial decision we made was for our best interest. And apparently evolution had a hand in our ability to be pretty darn good at it.
So the next time you see a chimp and you think that it’s sizing you up, it probably is.
I saw an article on the most obvious issue that parents delude themselves about. Swearing. Parents (including my own) have long pretended that there is no way their potty-mouth child could possibly learn such bad language from themselves. My own father (Hi Dad!) they call “Mr. Effing”. Why? Because it was effing this and effing that. Where most people take a pause to breath, my dad just tossed in the F-word. Yet my mother seemed to be beside herself wondering where on earth I learned that foul word! (She’s been known to swear on occasion too.)
So let’s get some accountability and really see where the cursing comes from. From NPR:
No one expects a 3-year-old who loves to dress like a princess to swear like a sailor.
But early exposure is not so uncommon. Who’s to blame? Well, there’s a pretty apt quote from a 1970 Pogo cartoon: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
The “us” are parents. A few weeks ago, I put a question out to hundreds of mothers on a local list-serv asking for anecdotes about the first time they heard their children use inappropriate words.
Many responses were similar to mom Julia Gordon of Silver Spring, Md. She was in her car, in a hurry and trying to park.
“The parking lot was crazy,” says Gordon, a lawyer and mother of a four-year-old daughter. When someone sped into a parking space she had been waiting for, Gordon said under her breath, “He totally screwed me.”
And a few minutes later, she heard her daughter parrot back the same phrase.
“I have to admit I did laugh at first,” says Gordon. “Then I immediately stopped and told her, ‘We don’t say that word!’”
Um…apparently you do. Most often while driving.
Psychologists say it’s no surprise that children mimic words and phrases.
“That’s just language learning. These words have no special status as taboo words,” says Paul Bloom, Ph.D., of Yale University. “Learning they’re taboo words is a later step.”
Bloom explains that children are using words to communicate instinctively. They don’t yet have the judgment to take a step back and think about whether a word is appropriate for a given situation.
I am reminded of my cousin’s 3 year old daughter, having cookies with my late grandmother. As they we enjoying their afternoon snack together, chatting it up, my grandparents’ golden retriever Duke, apparently coveting the cookies for quite some time, strolled up ever so casually and neatly, without any fanfare or physical harm, snatched the mostly uneaten cookie from the little girls pudgy hands. Shocked and dismayed, this sweet, angelic child looked straight into my grandmother’s eyes and declared:
To hear him talk, you’d think George Lucas would have preferred to call his movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.
Lucas, who co-wrote and produced the May 22 film, can sound downright sullen when it comes to his expectations of fan reaction to the year’s most highly anticipated movie.
“When you do a movie like this, a sequel that’s very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming,” Lucas says. “And it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up.”
The remarks appear to be part of a larger strategy to build interest yet temper expectations for the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Only one trailer is playing, and when director Steven Spielberg shows up for talk shows, he doesn’t bring footage.
Lucas says he learned his lesson about unrealistic expectations when he revived the Star Wars franchise in 1999. “When people approach the new (Indiana Jones), much like they did with Phantom Menace, they have a tendency to be a little harder on it,” he says. “You’re not going to get a lot of accolades doing a movie like this. All you can do is lose.”
Except when it comes to money. Analysts expect it to rake in well more than double its reported budget of $125 million. But Lucas says that doesn’t hold much sway for him, Spielberg and Harrison Ford.
“We came back to do (Indy) because we wanted to have fun,” he says. “It’s not going to make much money for us in the end. We all have some money. … It would make a lot of money if you weren’t rich. But we’re not doing it for the money.”
It’s fan and critic reaction for which the team is bracing, but Lucas says he has quit trying to appeal to everyone. “It was really a blast” to make. “And it turned out fantastic. … I like to watch it.”
And that is the key to expectations and handling disappointment. He doesn’t expect people will like it, so if they don’t he’s already mentally prepared, yet he likes the finished product and frankly, that’s more important than anything else. A healthy balance of a negative thinking and a positive sense of accomplishment!
So I was surfing around the intrawebs and found this great site called:
Wikihow is site that explains how to do just about anything. Need to learn how to clean your clothes dryer vent? Or perform telekinesis? How about making up a new language? It has just about everything. So I poked around and found something that combines negative worse-case-scenario planning with my disdain for monkeys:
Whether in the remote forests of Bali or in the backyard of some exotic animal dealer, you may encounter a monkey. To avoid bodily injury to yourself or to the monkey, read on for tips on how to protect yourself from any “unwanted” contact.
Let’s be honest. Almost all contact from a monkey would be unwanted. If you seek out a monkey for contact, you seriously need to re-evaluate your life and where you’re heading.
Steps
Learn that whatever the situation is, never heckle a monkey. They have feelings and get irritated, and they are very instinctive. So if you anger or annoy a monkey it will bite, scratch or inflict other bodily harm upon you. As a former professional stand-up, take it from me, you should never heckle anyone. Sure you think you’re going to say something funnier than the comic, but more likely than not you going to be walking into a buzzsaw. Comics are paid to rip people apart, so don’t bring your butter knife like wit to a tactical nuke fight. Same with monkeys, they’ll rip you a new one. Literally!
Take proper precautions, depending on the situation. Look around and think to yourself, “Is the monkey in a secure enclosure?” If not, “Is there a place where I can secure myself if the monkey were to attack?” Avoid operations where monkeys are on leashes or tied to trees. Again, if you are frequenting places with leashed or tied up monkeys, seek help. Find a nice hobby. Maybe create nice duct tape wallets or something.
Recognize that even if the monkey is in a cage or enclosure, you need to stay a distance away from the cage. Do not put your hands on the cage, either. Just watch from a distance.
If you are in a situation where the monkey is not in a cage, you’re playing a whole different ball game. Again think, “Is the monkey loose?” “On a chain or rope?” “Within grabbing distance?” If the situation seems safe, proceed to the next step. Do not take your eye off the little bugger. They may try and steal your nice new wallet you made from duct tape.
Step back and look at yourself. Do you have food, shiny jewelery, glasses, children or toys with you? If so, you should remove those items or yourself from the situation. Monkeys are attracted things that shine, smell good and make noise, so be aware of what you may be dangling in front of their faces. My favorite part of this step is the lump food, fashion accessories and toys in with children. I honestly believe some parent have children just to be an accessory to their lives. It justifies they’re Porsche Cayenne. And be careful dangling children in monkey’s faces. Children slobber (shine), smell like stale peanut butter and make noise. The holy trinity of trouble.
Stay calm in the unfortunate and unlikely event that you are attacked. If the monkey charges you, don’t fight back. The monkey can run, jump and climb better than you. Find something to get in between you and the monkey–a garbage can lid, a car or a steel door, anything you have that works. Or you can use the child from step 5.
Protect yourself by barricading yourself somewhere–a bathroom or building of some sort, your car. Anything safe and secure should be fine. Unless you’ve really angered or annoyed the monkey, it should lose interest within minutes and go away. Otherwise it will hunt you down for the rest of your days!!
Notify the owner first and then animal control, but only if absolutely necessary. Apparently monkeys really hate snitches.
Never get within the monkey’s reach.
Many monkeys roam wild but are frequently in contact with humans. Monkeys like these are frequently taunted by children throwing stones and other objects at them. A good tactic for scaring away a monkey is to pretend to throw something at them or to carry a couple of small rocks to throw at the ground near the monkey’s feet. Never throw the stone directly at the monkey unless you are in serious danger. This is a tried and true method used by creationists. Not only can you literally fight evolution, you can recreate David slaying Goliath!
Tips
Be careful of piercings. Enough said. Enough said? Are we talking our piercings or the monkeys?
Never, ever show your teeth. To a monkey, a big toothy grin means a challenge. He will definitely attack you. He will actually wipe that smug grin off your face. Very gruesome.
Keep your distance. It takes a long time for a monkey to trust you enough to let you get close–several weeks to months. Unless you are in a controlled situation, do not go near the monkey. Monkeys don’t trust you and you sure as hell better not trust them. I’m not kidding about the wallet thing.
Do not underestimate a monkey’s strength. They are stronger than you think. Unless you think they are superhuman mutant monkeys that can throw a car. They can’t throw cars. Not even a Mini Cooper.
Be the bigger primate. Don’t yell, scream or sing to the monkey. Being aggressive will only get you attacked. You are the human, you have the frontal cortex, you can differentiate between right and wrong. So don’t act like an idiot. This tip has eliminated every person who has ever auditioned from American Idol.
Long hair is dangerous. Tie it back or put it up when around monkeys. Here is the only thing monkeys and I agree on. We hate those damn hippies!
Use common sense and be safe!
Warnings
Monkeys are animals; they are dangerous and unpredictable.
Certain monkeys, when in groups, defend and attack together, so don’t go out drunk wanting to pick a fight with a band of monkeys because they will probably win. Guess you’ll have to make different plans for Spring Break.
Realize what calling animal control does. It says, “We’re freaking out, there is a dangerous animal here.” In some states if you report a loose monkey, or a bite, animal control will come and shoot the monkey. Just because you’re dealing with an animal who can’t defend itself doesn’t mean free reign- if you call animal control you better be serious. So think about the consequences.
Monkeys have been known to fling their feces. Try to wear goggles when in the vicinity. It’s not unlike going to a day care.
Monkeys are your physical superior, don’t forget that some monkeys can rip sapplings out of the ground. And danglings from your groin.
Things You’ll Need
A safe environment.
Somewhere to escape and secure yourself
A monkey(s) Really? You need a monkey? I guess you can’t prevent an attack if there is no monkey to potentially attack you. Good work, Columbo.
Some smarts - Not much, but some.
Goggles
Common sense - The most uncommon thing in the world today.
So there you have it. Everything you’ll need to know to prevent an attack. Good luck and God speed!
Looking for a speaker that blends humor with an impactful message? Please call our offices directly for available dates, fee schedules or a promotional video at 888.833.2902.
Visit Craig's website for more info.
"The Power of Negative Thinking" is a registered trademark of Wynn Solutions and may not be used in any way without the expressed written permission of Wynn Solutions.
No Comments » | 
Humorist, Monkey Monday, ape, chimps, communicating, creationists, danger, evolution, first impressions, humor, instincts, judgements, listening, making choices, monkey, monkeys, motivation, motivational, negative, negative thinking, negative thoughts, negativity, scientist | 
Permalink
Posted by Craig Price
