Monkey mirror human fascination with violence, familiar face on screen

According to Ohio State University research, long-tailed macaques have surprisingly similar video preferences to humans, showing appeal to positive content and familiar faces.

The study shows that like their human relatives, monkeys naturally attract conflict-based media and individuals they know.

Scientists showed 28 macaques at the Dutch Research Centre for two minutes, including different types of monkey behavior: conflict, modification, running and sitting. The monkeys always follow the video, showing conflicts between other monkeys, followed by running footage.

Evolution attracts aggressiveness

“We did a lot of research showing the popularity of violent media with humans. Now, we have some evidence that other primates may also attract conflict and aggressiveness in the video,” explains Brad Bushman, a research and communication professor at Ohio State University.

According to researchers, the preference for radical content is evolutionary. Both humans and monkeys may be bounded to pay attention to conflicts, as recognizing potential threats increases the chances of survival.

The study measured the time when monkeys looked directly at the screen and their behavioral responses while watching. The results show that the clear hierarchy of interest, conflict videos attracted the greatest attention, followed by activity content such as running, while embellishing and sitting attracted obvious attention.

Familiar face Trump stranger

In addition to content preference, macaques also show greater interest in videos of members of their social groups than strange monkeys. This discovery is similar to human behavior in entertainment.

“When we watch movies as humans, we want to see actors we know – we want to see stars play more in big movies than we are unfamiliar with actors.”

The researchers tested the monkeys from two separate groups, showing them videos of group members and strangers from the third invisible group. Consistently, the monkey focuses more on the familiar.

Social status affects viewing mode

Individual characteristics significantly affect viewing behavior. Lower levels and less aggressive macaques focus more on video than their main counterparts, suggesting that subordinate animals have more demand for social information.

“People with more dominance will be more confident that aggression will not affect them – they don’t have to pay much attention to others,” explained Elisabeth Sterck, the lead author of the study. “People with lower people can become victims of aggressiveness, which may be why they focus more on what other people do in the video.”

This study reveals other behavior patterns:

• Highly stressed, easy-to-emphasized macaques pay less attention to group members than calm people
• Young monkeys show more stress response while watching strangers
• Personal personality traits influence how monkeys deal with social video content
• Monkeys distinguish different types of activity behaviors, showing responses to conflicts and operation

Understand the impact of media preferences

The findings suggest that the attraction to aggressive media content has deep evolutionary roots between humans and other primates. “It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Both humans and other animals may have difficulty paying attention to aggression because it is an adaptive response that can increase survival,” Bushman added.

The study involved complex experimental designs, with monkeys voluntarily entering the test corridor, where they could watch videos on their laptops, while researchers documented their behavior from multiple angles. The monkey’s outstanding vision, similar to that of humans, makes it an ideal subject based on video research.

This study provides new insights into the biological basis of media preference, suggesting that our attraction to conflict-based entertainment and familiar characters may stem from ancient survival mechanisms shared with our closest evolutionary relatives.

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