How Basic Are Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior
Open accessAbstract
Behavioral economics has demonstrated systematic decision‐making biases in both lab and field data. Do these biases extend across contexts, cultures, or even species? We investigate this question by introducing fiat currency and trade to a colony of capuchin monkeys and recovering their preferences over a range of goods and gambles. We show that capuchins react rationally to both price and wealth shocks but display several hallmark biases when faced with gambles, including reference dependence and loss aversion. Given our capuchins’ inexperience with money and trade, these results suggest that loss aversion extends beyond humans and may be innate rather than learned.
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Loss aversion appears to exist across both domains and species.
“Loss aversion appears to exist across both domains and species”
From Thinking like a trader selectively reduces individuals' loss aversion (2009) · cites this paper as [33]
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- Authors
- Chen, M. K., Lakshminarayanan, V., & Santos, L. R.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- ORCID
- Santos, Laurie R.
- Venue
- Journal of Political Economy
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 517-537
- ISSN
- 0022-3808 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-534X
- OpenAlex
- W1985067115
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 16.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- Journal of Political Economy (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Financial Markets and Investment Strategies
- Keywords
- behavioral biases, capuchin monkeys, loss aversion, reference dependence, trade, fiat money, price shocks, wealth shocks, innate behavior, cross-species comparison
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