Question

The Institutional Review Board at Virginia Tech would be concerned that a study on only female students is discriminatory (because males don’t get to participate.) As a result, most researchers would probably include male students in their study as well, then control for any differences in behavior caused by gender. Why don’t primate researchers do the same?

Answer 1

Primates such as monkeys, chimpanzees and orangutans resemble humans closely. Studying primates gives us an insight into the human nature. Primate research is the use of non human primates for research in the field of medicine; studies of infectious diseases, neurological studies, reproduction and genetics. In primate research, gender is not a major criteria because both male and female are given equal preference depending on the exact nature and need of the research concerned. For example, in studying the sexual partner preference in female Japanese macaques, female macaques are preferred over males. Here use of males is not preferred. However in other research work where the gender is not a matter of concern both male and female are used.