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just like us, some monkeys 'choke' under pressure, while others thrive

it turns out that how we react under pressure is an evolutionary common stress response.

by maija kappler

feb 17 2022

2 minute read

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just like us, some monkeys 'choke' under pressure, while others thrive

researchers found that added stress made some monkeys act anxious and flub their tasks. getty

humans aren’t the only species who sometimes freeze up and panic under pressure, according to a new georgia state university study on monkeys.

the study, published in the journal nature , looked specifically at tufted capuchin monkeys, chosen because their cognitive processes are similar to the way human memory works. they found that added stress made some monkeys act anxious and flub their tasks, while others responded well to pressure, working more effectively.

“there are several different explanations for why humans might ‘choke’ or ‘thrive’ under pressure, but all of these explanations have traditionally considered this sensitivity to pressure to be a human-specific trait,” ph.d. candidate meg sosnowski, the study’s lead author, told the university’s news outlet. “our new results provide the first evidence that other species also might be susceptible to this influence of pressure, and that our responses to that pressure are, in part, the result of individual variation in an evolutionarily common stress response.”

the monkeys in the study were tasked with matching images on a computer. a sample clipart image was displayed on the screen for two seconds before disappearing. the screen would be blank for one second, and then the monkeys were shown four images, one of which matched the initial one. if they got it right, they were rewarded with one food pellet.

then, to raise the pressure, the test got harder and the reward got higher. an initial image would be displayed, then the screen would go blue and be blank for a full five seconds. if they got this one right, they’d be rewarded with three pellets. (“although it might seem a small difference in reward quantity, we have evidence that this population of capuchins is sensitive to the number of reward pellets received and changes their behaviour accordingly,” the study noted.)

more stress means worse performance

researchers used non-invasive fecal tests to determine the monkeys’ levels of cortisol, a primary stress hormone. they found that higher cortisol levels were associated with a lower ability to successfully complete the high-pressure trials — essentially, the monkeys who were most stressed were least likely to perform well under pressure. this part of the research “provid[ed] evidence that an individual’s long-term stress state might be related to cognitive performance,” the study found. “ongoing exposure to stress is related to the ability of an individual to cope with an acutely stressful situation and, therefore, the individual differences we see in ‘choking.'”

but there wasn’t one unified reaction to higher stress levels: a lot depended on an individual monkey’s reactions. “our results suggest that, like humans, there is individual variation in how capuchins perform on a cognitive task during high-pressure situations, with some monkeys tending to ‘choke’ and others to thrive,” the study found.

we’re more like animals than we think, essentially. and while humans may prefer to believe that our individual stress responses are due to “humans’ language, high-level cumulative cultural evolution, or well-developed theory of mind,” the study concludes that they are actually “factors shared more broadly across animals.”

maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com

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