The Claim

Rhesus monkeys exhibit reduced avoidance responses to human throwing when the thrower's gaze is directed away from them, indicating that their behavioral response is modulated by the visual attention of the thrower toward the target.

Source: The uniquely human capacity to throw evolved from a non-throwing primate: an evolutionary dissociation between action and perception

What the research says

Roughly balanced

Support and challenge are close. The picture may shift as more studies come in.

Supports
6score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

How it works
1 study reviewed
In plain English

Rhesus monkeys are less likely to avoid being thrown at when the person throwing looks away from them, showing their behavior changes based on where the thrower is looking.

See the scientific wording

Rhesus monkeys reduce avoidance responses to human throwing when the thrower’s gaze is directed away from them, suggesting they understand that accurate throwing requires visual attention toward the target.

Why this might work

When a monkey sees a person looking away while throwing, the brain recognizes that the person is not paying attention to the target, so the threat signal is weaker. This reduces fear responses because the brain does not interpret the throw as likely to hit.

Supported mechanismbased on 1 study

What the research says

1 study

  1. Study: The uniquely human capacity to throw evolved from a non-throwing primate: an evolutionary dissociation between action and perception

    Monkeys pay attention to where a person is looking when they throw something — if the person looks away, the monkeys think the throw won’t hit them, so they don’t get as scared. This means they understand that you need to look at your target to throw well.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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