Monkeys choose variety for variety's sake

DURHAM, N.C., March 22 (UPI) -- U.S. and Italian scientists say they've found monkeys, given a choice of their favorite food or choosing from a variety of options, will opt for variety.

Duke University scientists led by Professor Dan Ariely said the choices made by the captive-bred capuchin monkeys in Italy's Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies seem to show some innate desire to seek variety.

In a series of experiments Ariely conducted with his Italian colleagues in Rome, eight monkeys were taught they could use different tokens to buy one piece of their most-preferred food, or to buy one piece from an assortment of foods that included the most-preferred food.

Italian research scientist Elsa Addessi, an author of the study, said the monkeys as a group chose to use the variety tokens and not the "single-food-tokens." Moreover, she said once they chose the variety tokens, the monkeys also didn't always take the most-preferred food when it was offered as part of the variety assortment.

The findings are expected to shed light on human consumer behavior, since earlier work on human variety-seeking found people eat 43 percent more M&M candies when there are 10 colors in a bowl instead of just seven.

Ariely said the behavior of the monkeys "suggests there's some inherent basic strategy for variety."

The study appears online in the journal Behavioural Processes.