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Big Social Group Makes Lemurs Cannier
大的社群让狐猴更狡猾。
Good news for big-time networking primates: other primates that live in large social groups have more street smarts than their comrades with smaller social circles. So finds a study in the journal PLoS ONE.
对社交型灵长类来说，有好消息了。对那些生活在大社群里的灵长类来说，他们比小社交群里的动物更具智慧。公共科学图书馆期刊上一篇研究显示。
Researchers tested the circumstances under which lemurs would pilfer food from people. The study included ring-tailed lemurs, which come from large social groups, as well as lemurs from small-groups, like the mongoose lemur. The lemurs all had the same brain size, so would be presumed to have similar raw intelligence.
研究人员测试了狐猴偷窃人类食物的情景。研究包括节尾狐猴，来自大社群，还有从小社群来的狐猴，比如獴狐猴。狐猴的大脑一般大，假定它们的先天智力一样。
Humans sat in a room with either a plate of food on the table in front of them or behind them. A third group of people was blindfolded, with the plate in front of them.
人们坐在一间屋子里，前面的桌子上有一盘食物，一组是正对着桌子，一组背对着桌子。还有第三组是蒙着眼坐在桌前。
Lemurs from large social groups tended to steal the food if the person's back was to it. Lemurs from smaller social groups went for the food as frequently regardless of its position. And no lemurs appeared to understand the purpose of a blindfold.
来自大社群的狐猴会选择偷背对桌子的那一组的食物。而来自小社群的狐猴则不考虑人做的方式。两组均不明白蒙眼的目的。
The researchers interpret the results as showing that social factors can influence a species' smarts. So you could be outwitted by a birdbrain, if he has a lot of friends.
研究人员解释，结果显示社交因素能影响一个种群的智慧。所以如果有个笨蛋有很多朋友，那么你很可能被他蒙骗了。
—Amy Kraft
