Can boy monkeys throw?

Aimed throwing is a gendered activity – men are typically better at it than women (by about 1 standard deviation, some studies claim). Obviously this could be due to differential practice, which is in turn due to cultural bias in what men vs women are expected to be a good at and enjoy (some say “not so” to this practice-effect explanation).

Monkeys are interesting because they are close evolutionary relatives, but don’t have human gender expectations. So we note with interest this 2000 study which claims no difference in throwing accuracy between male and female Capuchin monkeys. In fact, the female monkeys were (non-significantly) more accurate than the males (perhaps due to throwing as part of Capuchin female sexual displays?).

Elsewhere, a review of cross-species gender differences in spatial ability finds “most of the hypotheses [that male mammals have better spatial ability than females] are either logically flawed or, as yet, have no substantial support. Few of the data exclusively support or exclude any current hypotheses“.

Chimps are closer relatives to humans than monkeys, but although there is a literature on gendered differences in object use/preference among chimps, I couldn’t immediately find anything on gendered differences in throwing among chimps. Possibly because few scientists want to get near a chimp when it is flinging sh*t around.

Cite: Westergaard, G. C., Liv, C., Haynie, M. K., & Suomi, S. J. (2000). A comparative study of aimed throwing by monkeys and humans. Neuropsychologia, 38(11), 1511-1517.

Previously: gendered brain blogging