Would you say that pets have rudimentary emotions?
Does the ability to express emotions vary from species to species, or from pet to pet?
My parents’ dogs lead me to suspect that pets may have rudimentary emotions. You could tell when they were happy (or just trying to be ingratiating), and they occasionally seemed to cry when they were really sad.
Or do we humans just read an unthinking act from the pet as an emotional one?
Has any vet done any study on this…or is it logically impossible that any pet would have a human emotion.
I think it’s improbable that humans would be the only animals to have an emotions.
Apes taught sign language have learned and used words that signify emotions and feelings.
You’re right that it’s easy sometimes to read our human emotions into the reactions of our pets, but I think my cat definitely has varying moods. Sometimes she wants to be close to us, other times she gets irritated when we so much as walk too close to her and stalks off with her tail twitching. I’m a little bit dubious when people claim their cats get embarrassed or such, because that implies that the animal has the ability to guess what we are thinking, and that seems to be a trait that chimps, whose behavior is pretty well studied, don’t have.
My cat seems to know when I’m not feeling well, because this is the only time she will curl up on my lap . . . but I don’t know what causes her to do that.
Any animal lover will tell you, “Of course they have emotions!” – and definitely more than rudimentary – but I suppose since we’re in GD, you’ll want more evidence. So . . .
The best example I’ve experienced of animal emotions was when our springer spaniel Emily’s wrestling/playing/running/sleeping buddy B.J. got hit by a car. She wasn’t living with us at the time and we didn’t get to see her until the next day. When she saw Mr. Scarlett (her favorite person), she immediately scrambled frantically into his lap and kept trying to crawl down his shirt. Her eyes were very watery and we had never seen her this freaked out before. It seemed very clear that B.J.'s sudden absence was upsetting her.
Emily was a very expressive dog. Another of her clear emotional expressions was love. She would often snuggle up to Mr. Scarlett on the couch, lean on him, and stretch her neck up to gaze at him in what could only be described as an adoring and loving manner. God, did she ever worship him. The worst punishment for her – worse than a slap – was for him to speak harshly to her. Fortunately she was so well behaved that this was rarely needed.
Then of course there was her clearly apparent confusion and fear the night she died – as her heart failed and her brain began to starve for oxygen, she thrashed around even in her weakness and we could not calm her. (Thank God she went relatively quickly – about two hours from her initial signs of real distress to the end.)
I do think that animals do have emotions, but I also think that we might confuse some of this for natural instinct.
For example, in every Discovery show featuring an animal which is about to be dinner, you see attacks or flights of fear. Fear is an emotion, but is this an emotional response, or is it simply instinct?
How are we to know the difference between the two simply by studying animals?
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What makes (some) scientific minds think that emotion is too complex for those “stupid animals”? We share many characteristics with the other animals, differing largely in degree and kind. I suspect emotion is just another thing we share with the other critters on this planet.
Mind you, I don’t think my dogs will ever worry about taxes, but sometimes they do seem to be worried. They are happy to see me even if it isn’t feeding time, and when I feel sad, they seem to realize this and offer comfort in their own way. I suspect that emotion is common to all social animals.
>> I suspect that emotion is common to all social animals. <<
Absolutely. Animals aren’t dumb little furry people. Some of their emotions are instinctual. After all, they don’t have the complex cognitive thought processes we do. Man is the only mammal who thinks about thinking, or emotions.
But does even being instinctual make it a lesser emotion?
Now, I am an animal owner & lover, so I may be a little biased. I have always thought that dogs do indeed have emotions, and because they are less complex than ours, they are more pure. Watch my dogs when I let them off leash while hiking! They just run in huge circles for the sheer joy of it, they are just purely happy. When I leave in the morning, that is sadness and resignation on those dumb faces, no doubt about it. And when I am angry or upset about something, the dogs get anxious and need extra petting.
I’m not so sure about my cats though. Perhaps because they’re not social animals (don’t get on my case, Cat People…most cats are NOT as social and complex as dogs, and I don’t mean that as a value judgement)…the cats are just…more inscrutable.
What does it mean to have an emotion? Some would say that neither animals nor humans have emotions, that all we have is behavior changes. So, are we talking about behavior changes in response to environmental conditions, or are we talking about chemical/biological processes? For instance, studies of clinical depression in humans have shown radical changes in the levels of various neurotransmitters. (That’s why antidepressants work, btw, they restore the neurochemical balance in the brain.) I haven’t personally seen any studies on the neurochemistry of depression or other behavioral disorders in animals, but it would not surprise me to know that the same variations in neurotransmitter levels are correlated to the same sorts of behavior changes in animals.
Obviously pets exhibit behavior changes in response to varying environmental stimuli - watch my dogs spazz out when we get the leashes out. That is a stimulus, in response to which they jump around, wag their tails, run back and forth to the door, etc. Are they ‘happy’ or ‘excited’ to be going for a walk? Who knows. Watch them when I go to work in the morning - they walk slowly, their tails droop, they turn away and look at me out of the corner of their eye. (Eyes.) Are they depressed? Who knows.
But…
I have a dog who was formerly kept alone, locked in a house all day by himself because his owners worked, tied on a short leash outside in the afternoons, never taken for walks, never allowed to bark, and hardly ever given any interaction at all. He slept most of the time, seldom wagged his tail, gained weight, had dull, runny eyes, walked slowly from room to room with his head hanging. Was he depressed? I don’t know. His behavior was very similar to that of a human who we call ‘depressed’ … Now he lives in a house with another dog to run around with, a yard to run around in, gets lots of interaction and daily walks. He has lost weight, his eyes are brighter, his coat is shinier, he runs around, his tail wags like a flag all the time, and he does not sleep as much. Is he ‘not depressed’? Well, if a human had exhibited the same change of behavior in response to a change in environment, we would probably conclude that he was no longer ‘depressed’.
So, I would say, that insofar as we can consider humans to have ‘emotions’ like happinesss or depression, yes, pets can have those same emotions. But it’s all just behavior. That’s all we can measure.
What is the difference, exactly, between emotional response and simple instinct? Other than emotional response is what you have and you know it’s not instinct because you’re having it?
I’m not trying to be snide. But I really think…well for a start that our emotions are also based on instinct. Just as much as animals. The only real difference is animals can’t rationailize there emotions afterwards. Or discusss there signifigence with their shrink.
To be honest, I find this thread a little annoying (I mean, not that it’s not worth bringing up, but…) But…Of course animals have emotions!!! It’s bad enough we make a claim for all the intelligence in the world. People have the intelligence of people, and the emotions of people. Cats (for example) have cat intelligence and cat emotions. And cats, being social(they are to) animals and very close to humans (as opposed to, say, earthworms) have emotions very like humans. I know this because I live with cats and for the same reason (clues from their behavior) that I know my boyfriend has emotions. Of course it is possible my boyfriend acts only from instinct.
Of course animals have emotions, and feelings. BUT they do not think like we do- so it is sometimes incorrect to say “Fluffys mad at me becuase…” as Fluffy may very well be irritated- but not for the reason you surmise.
>>What does it mean to have an emotion? Some would say that neither animals nor humans have emotions, that all we have is behavior changes. So, are we talking about behavior changes in response to environmental conditions, or are we talking about chemical/biological processes?<<
Perhaps in order to really answer the OP question, one has to define emotion. I guess that’s why I made the point about animals’ “emotions” being less complex and being just unadulterated. In both cases, I would think that “emotion” is both behaviour change, and bio-chemical change, in response to external stimulii. Difference being, we make value judgements, assess our responses, filter out that which is socially or personally unacceptable, and so on. Animals just…respond without all that cognitive junk.
Still emotion though. There are antidepressants & anti-anxiety meds that work on dogs in much the same way they work on humans, so my guess is that we are similar, pharmo-psychologically speaking.
Yes, I think animals do have emotions, and they’re limited to the physical world because they don’t have the kind of expansive cognitive abilities humans do.
One bit of anecdotal evidence I’d like to throw in…
When I was still living with my late BT Pluggy she pulled some stunt and got yelled at. She went to sulk on the couch and regarded me with what could only be described as a baleful expression. I immediately felt sorry for her and went over to apologize and kiss her on the head. As soon as I bent over to kiss her she jumped up, bit me on the nose and ran off. Either a twisted sense of humor or your typical bratty response. So I’m quite certain your common housepets do experience basic, reactive emotions. But not the higher ones based on abstract thinking.
For instance, I was quite impressed by a Salvador Dali painting I came across by accident in the National Gallery. I don’t dig Dali in general, but this one was very appealing as regards its form and composition.
Pluggy, OTOH, had she seen it, would most likely be thinking one of three things:
-Can I eat it?
-Can I sleep on it?
-Can I pee on it?
The only emotion she would have experienced is the fear from getting yelled at for attempting any of the above.
I think animals have emotions…to a greater or lesser degree depending on the species. It’s easy to see some emotions in dogs, like anger, fear, happiness (or at least some type of approval), and even jealousy (something my cat is good at expressing).
As has been said, this could be misinterpreted instinctual behavoir. But I think that humans are not without instinct too…so where is our line between instinctual response and emotion? Seems like a big gray area to me. Why do we love who we do? Often, we can’t explain it…we just do. Perhaps instinctually. There is certainly some evidence that what-humans-find-attractive is partly hard-wired.
I also think that some animals have cognitive capabilities. Again, more or less depending on the particular species.
If you accept evolution, then this is not much of a stretch. Humans just have way-above average mental capacities compared to other animal species (especially since Homo sapiens probably wiped out…or assimilated…all the competing homonid species).
When Morris Frank brought the first Seeing Eye dog, Buddy, to the United States, he went on many lecture tours doing presentations to get guide dogs accepted wherever their owners might want to go. (Natch, this was many years before ADA.) He would then demonstrate Buddy’s skills, let people meet and pet her, etc.
At one lecture hall, the organizers decided to set up their own test for Buddy. Unknown to Mr. Frank, they set up a maze of obstacles along the center aisle by which he was to leave the stage. They even erected an overhead bar (the dogs are trained to gauge the master’s height against objects that the dog would pass under but the master might hit – awnings, doorways, etc.). It was a mess.
When Buddy and Mr. Frank were ready to leave the stage, he gave her the forward command, but she didn’t budge. He tried again, with no luck. He had no idea what was going on. Finally, he “gave her her head” and let her lead him freely – and she took him down the side aisle, which no one had thought to block. The audience went wild.
I submit that Buddy’s choosing to take the easy path, rather than jump through some rather literal hoops, demonstrates cognitive abilities better than those of some humans with supposedly “normal” intelligence.
