By: Joe Serwach, U-M News Service
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Research of Assistant Professors Jacinta Beehner and Thore Bergman is topic of News Service press release and video

From the press release:

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—If you wonder where you stand in the social pecking order at work, home and in the community, a little known group of primates found only in the highlands of Ethiopia may offer some clues.

University of Michigan psychology and anthropology researchers Jacinta Beehner and Thore Bergman have spent more than a decade studying the social skills of non-human primates, focusing their attention on behavioral stress, aggression, social status and mate choice.

“Of course, your own social status is contingent on who else is there with you. Rank is always relative,” Beehner said. “We know primates know their own rank. The question is whether they are aware of the relative ranks of everyone else around them....

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To read the entire release and see the related Quicktime video, go to the U-M News Service website at http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6223.

The story, along with more photos, can also be seen in the University Record at http://www.ur.umich.edu/0708/Dec10_07/08.shtml.