Chimps Beat Kids at Getting Prizes

The New York Times reports today that when you pit chimps against 3 to 4 year old humans, chimps win.

Reason? Human are hard-wired for ritual. Show a kid a lucite box with a cookie in it and then go through a top-tapping, bolt-sliding bunch of malarky to get the box open when you could just open the door and the kid will repeat the whole sequence almost every time. The wise monkey will just snatch the door open and grab the cookie.

Hey - that's the price we pay for bigger brains! Slower development. It takes awhile to grow all those complex neurons that, one day, will let that 4 year old human type in a URL to hear herrings fart online. There's a price for everything, Monkey Shines!