executive monkey

executive monkey

PSYCHOLOGY 

An experimental model of uncertain validity, in which a higher primate is placed in a stress-producing “executive” situation. The simian CEO is then forced to decide whether a nearby monkey will receive an electric shock. Executive monkeys developed stress ulcers of the stomach, occasionally with fatal perforation 

That non-human primates–which are phylogenically and physically nearest to man should react like humans when placed in similar situations, is heuristically logical, but was only weakly corroborated by subsequent studies 

Synonym CEO syndrome 

Reference Psychosom Med 1958; 20:379