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Making sense of monkey business: Re-examining tests of animal rationality

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  • Pawel Dziewulski

    (University of Sussex)

  • Roy Allen

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • John Rehbeck

    (Ohio State University)

Abstract

This paper re-examines research that studies economic rationality using experimental data generated by nonhuman animals (e.g. rats, pigeons, monkeys, etc.). The standard experimental methodology to elicit choices from nonhuman animals allows a researcher to test three types of economic rationality: standard deterministic utility maximization, average choice rationality, and random utility maximization. Most of the research has evaluated whether animals satisfy average choice rationality. We describe the difference between these models and check each type of rationality on capuchin monkey data from Chen et al. (2006). We reject standard deterministic utility maximization, but cannot reject either average choice rationality or random utility maximization. This paper is the first to provide a statistical test for average choice rationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Pawel Dziewulski & Roy Allen & John Rehbeck, 2021. "Making sense of monkey business: Re-examining tests of animal rationality," Working Paper Series 0321, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0321
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