A snapshot of scientific thought on emotions in animals

Wild capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica where Emory anthropologist Marcela Benítez is studying their social behaviors. (Capuchinos de Taboga)

The journal Royal Society Open Science published a survey of 100 researchers of animal behavior, providing a unique view of current scientific thought on animal emotions and consciousness. 

“As far as we know, this is the first assessment of how animal behavior researchers across a range of disciplines think about emotions and consciousness in non-human animals,” says Marcela Benítez, assistant professor of anthropology at Emory University and corresponding author of the paper. “It gives us a snapshot in time so that 20 years from now, we can revisit how scientific experts may have changed their views.” 

A majority of the survey respondents ascribed emotions to “most” or “all or nearly all” non-human primates (98%), other mammals (89%), birds (78%), octopus, squids and cuttlefish (72%) and fish (53%). And most of the respondents ascribed emotions to at least some members of each taxonomic group of animals considered, including insects (67%) and other invertebrates (71%). 

The survey also included questions about the risks in animal behavioral research of anthropomorphism (inaccurately projecting human experience onto animals) and anthropodenial (willful blindness to any human characteristics of animals). 

“It’s surprising that 89% of the respondents thought that anthropodenial was problematic in animal behavioral research, compared to only 49% who thought anthropomorphism poses a risk,” Benítez says. “That seems like a big shift.” 

Anthropomorphism, she notes, has long been a leading argument against those who attributed feelings to animals.

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