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‘Like the cat that got the cream’: Animals experience emotions like humans – showing positive mood when ‘winning’ and pessimism when ‘losing’, study finds
- Experts in animal behavior have traditionally not considered the role of emotion
- While humans can relate what they feel, animal emotions are enigmatic
- Belfast researchers looked at studies of animal competitions for resources
- They found that winners behaved more confidently after wins, unlike losers
- This demonstrates that emotions can help guide various animal behaviors.
Animals have a positive mood when they “ win ” and pessimism when they “ lose ” – suggesting they feel emotions like us, according to a study.
In a review study, experts from Belfast used the example of animal competitions – for limited resources, or partners – to claim that emotion affects animal behavior.
Scientists studying animal behavior have traditionally not considered the role of emotion – which is difficult to measure accurately in an animal.
However, the team concluded, animals behave differently after the competition results – those who lose, for example, develop a negative emotional state.
This, in turn, causes them to rate their chances of winning future fights more pessimistically – and may discourage them from engaging rivals.
On the other hand, winners develop positive moods which have the opposite effect.
Emotion could also guide non-reflexive actions of animals in other settings beyond competition – from signaling to mate choice and parental care.
Given this, the findings may have implications for animal welfare, and how this might be improved, the researchers noted.
Animals exhibit a positive mood when they “ win ” and pessimism when they “ lose ” – suggesting they feel emotions like us, according to a study. In the photo, a happy cat
“Human emotion influences independent cognition and behavior. For example, people find their overall life satisfaction higher on sunny days than on rainy days, ”said author and animal behaviorist Andrew Crump, of Queen’s University, Belfast.
Similar phenomena can be seen in animals, according to the team.
“We found that animal emotions also influence cognition and unrelated behavior. For example, animals that won a competition had a more positive mood and expected fewer predators in their environment.
Likewise, animals that lost a contest experienced negative emotions and participated in fewer future contests. These transfer effects can lead to maladaptive behavior.
“Stimuli or events that elicit emotional responses can influence virtually any decision – potentially with life or death consequences,” continued Dr. Crump.
“For example, is the rustling of leaves a predator or the wind? Anxious animals will likely interpret the rustle as a predator and run away.
“This mood is adaptive when anxiety is relevant, for example if it was induced by a previous experience of predator attacks.
“But the mood is inappropriate if it was induced by something else – say, losing a contest,” he added.
“In these circumstances, when the emotional basis of the decision is not tied to the decision itself, we anticipate inappropriate decision making.
In a review study, experts from Belfast used the example of animal competitions – for limited resources, or partners – to claim that emotion affects animal behavior. In the photo, two male fiddler crabs are fighting. According to the new study, the winner will develop a better mood and rank their chances of success even more in future contests.
“Animal behavior researchers generally do not take animal emotions into account in their work,” said author and animal behavior expert Gareth Arnott of Queen’s University Belfast.
“The results of this study show that this may need to be considered as the role of animal emotion is crucial in understanding their subsequent behavior.
“Understanding these emotions also has practical benefits for the future of animal welfare. Good welfare requires that animals have few negative emotions and many opportunities for positive experiences.
“Understanding animal emotions and why they have evolved will therefore help us measure and improve animal emotional states and well-being.
The full results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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