January 12, 2018

It's not The Gorilla Channel, but there are lots of chimpanzees.

Can you look at a photo of a chimpanzee and pick out its sibling from a photo lineup of 4 other chimpanzees?

I took the test and did worse than random guessing. Only 2 out of 15. Meade got 7 of 15.

36 comments:

Rusty said...

You really make this too easy.

traditionalguy said...

Species-ists! And from a shithole Planet in a shithole Galaxy, too.

Gahrie said...

Can chimps look at pictures of humans and tell when they are related?

Would chimps even care?

tim in vermont said...

Not going to quit the day job then. 4/15 Almost exactly chance.

Riley said...

4/15

Meade said...

Apparently, my score was relatively high. Doesn't surprise me. Family lore has it I'm 1/32 chimpanzee. Or maybe it's 1/32 Cherokee. Something like that. I'll have to check with my Aunt Liz.

stevew said...

4/15. Clearly not adept at this.

-sw

Beth B said...

6 of 15

Fernandinande said...

The real test might be "How many times will someone press 'Start' without 'it' starting, before they give up?"

So far it's about 8 times for this almost-human subject. 6 right - looked at their nostrils and ears.

SeanF said...

I got 7 out of 15, same as Meade.

Howard said...

7/15 First half tried to compare noses, ears mouths etc. second half just relied on the overall gestalt no idea if it made a difference

Quaestor said...

4 out of 15. Random success. I didn't grok the confidence thing at all.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Only 1 correct answer. And I really tried too.

Denever said...

8/15. I focused on ears a lot.

Ralph L said...

Family lore has it I'm 1/32 chimpanzee.

There must be a word for this PC assumption, as it's often on police shows. One race not as adept at distinguishing "people" of another race as that race.

Is chimp promiscuity genetic or cultural?

Ralph L said...

Family lore has it I'm 1/32 chimpanzee.

There must be a word for this PC assumption, as it's often on police shows. One race not as adept at distinguishing "people" of another race as that race.

Is chimp promiscuity genetic or cultural?

Rosalyn C. said...

5/15 Harder than I thought. Why didn't they include the mothers?

AllenS said...

I didn't get any right. I guess they all look alike. Can I say that?

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

“ ... explore how kin-based facial recognition evolved in humans and other primates ... “

4 of 15 - totally random, that is, not studying lower row of pics, just random drift-click with mouse.

11 of 15 - studying only width of nasal bridge and space between eyes (at least two of these were lucky guesses).

Confidence - accepted pre-set baseline of 50% because all chimps started looking like Steven Pinker when I wanted greater "confidence" levels ... (see below).

If the experiment is to tease out kin-based facial recognition as an evolved and adaptive trait rather than as an artifact, then my reproductive fitness for mating with chimps is pretty high, at least when I try!

Next test: look again while spinning 2LiveCrew, "As Nasty As They Wanna Be," track "Me So Horny," and see if the music puts me in the mood, because these chimps without makeup just aren't turn-ons, and passive associations aren't going to cut it with me.

I want action.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

If the experiment is to tease out kin-based facial recognition as an evolved and adaptive trait rather than as an artifact, then my reproductive fitness for mating with chimps is pretty high, at least when I try!

“Bongo, Bongo, Bongo, I don’t want to leave the Congo ....”

StephenFearby said...

You're monkeying around with my valuable time.

Only 5 out of 15. Even though (back in the day), my score on the Millers Analogy Test got me into MENSA!

(As they say, "That and a token gets you a ride on the subway.")

Only joined because I really wanted to date a very smart woman who wasn't into cults or crazy in various other ways.

Showed up at one of MENSA's monthly meetings in Greenwich Village. They were having an event. The women were seated behind a row of card tables offering to read my palm, do a tarot card reading or (if I recall correctly) stare into a crystal ball.

Then some gay guy tried to pick me up. (Obligatory disclaimer: as Jerry Steinfeld put it,
"There's nothing wrong with being gay".)

I never went back.

whitney said...

I got 2 out of 15. I'm really bad at that. In my defense I'm pretty bad at it with humans too

Rob said...

So many people here taking the test. Monkey see, Monkey do.

5/15 for me, very close to random.

JackOfClubs said...

6/15 Focusing on ears, nostrils and eye-ridges. Not sure how to estimate confidence but I generally chose around 60%. Which is exactly the percentage I got wrong, ironically.

@Meade Chimpanzee ... Cherokee... spelling doesn't count on the internet.

Curious George said...

0/0 I'm no monkey...wait, what?

Snark said...

That was interesting. I got 6 out of 15 and had no confidence in picking a confidence level, so just left it at 50% each time.

CStanley said...

6 out of 15.

It was boring because the chimpanzees weren't fighting.

Mister Brickhouse said...

5 out of 15
If I say they all looked alike does that make me a deplorable shathole racist?

MaxedOutMama said...

I got 8 out of 15, which equates to about random.

On the other hand, I have the rare brain defect that means I cannot recognize people's faces. That's one reason I don't watch a lot of movies/TV. I recognize people by their gaits, voices, hair, etc, but not by their faces.

So did that make me better or worse at this exercise?

MaxedOutMama said...

Do you think if I took a genetic test I would turn out to be 10-15% Neanderthal? Maybe I'm not quite human?

This is really shaking me up. I got the best score so far, and I couldn't recognize a picture of my father or my mother!

Achilles said...

7.

I tried to just go with my first reaction because I figured my instincts would work better than my (lack of) knowledge.

buwaya said...

Four

Ceos said...

I got 8

Anonymous said...

8 out of 15! (Thumps chest and hoots.)

Birches said...

Three.

J2 said...

9. Study the top photo and scan the other 4 quickly to get the same vibe.