Monkeys, like their hairless, tailless counterparts, are attracted to ahem, nudity. Robert Deaner of Duke University Medical Center and his team studied male macaques looking at pictures of other macaques on the computer screen. Specifically, they examined the amount of reward (some juice) the monkeys are willing to accept in order to look at the pictures. They found that the monkeys will look at certain pictures (females of higher rank, swollen female behind, etc.) for significantly small rewards, than say, when looking at images of low ranking males :-).

Red-faced male macaque (Courtesy: St. Andrews University) More seriously, the study might have implications for the wiring for the human brain as well. Since monkeys and humans are quite alike, this might explain why many human males behave in a similar manner (note: J. Lo). Also, it will be interesting to see if the researchers (or some other group) can extend this work to cover apes, especially chimps (where males are dominant), and bonobos (where females are more powerful) and see if this holds true for them as well.
This work will appear in the March issue of Current Biology. Hmm, and what about the female behavior when watching males? Corri Waitt of the University of Stirling, in association with the St. Andrews University, found that female macaques prefer males with symmetric, rosy faces. Nothing prurient about that!