Question

Pick the best answer: Sapolsky's work with baboons shows that: a) that baboon aggression is obligate b) that baboon aggression is facultative c) that stress from hierarchical aggression in baboons causes the same biomarkers of poor health that we see in humans d) all of the above e) a & b only f) b & c only g) a & c only

Answer 1

People, apes and monkeys are highly intelligent, social creatures with far too much spare time on their hands.

"Primates are super smart and organized just enough to devote their free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each other out," he said. "But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick."

"The reason baboons are such good models is, like us, they don't have real stressors," he said. "If you live in a baboon troop in the Serengeti, you only have to work three hours a day for your calories, and predators don't mess with you much. What that means is you've got nine hours of free time every day to devote to generating psychological stress toward other animals in your troop. So the baboon is a wonderful model for living well enough and long enough to pay the price for all the social-stressor nonsense that they create for each other. They're just like us: They're not getting done in by predators and famines, they're getting done in by each other."

So correct option is (f) (b) and (c) only. That baboon aggression is facultative and that stress from hierarchical aggression in baboons causes the same biomarkers of poor health that we see in humans.