Emotions In Animals Research Articles

Studying emotion in invertebrates: what has been done, what can be measured and what they can provide.

Until recently, whether invertebrates might exhibit emotions was unknown. This possibility has traditionally been dismissed by many as emotions are frequently defined with reference to human subjective experience, and invertebrates are often not considered to have the neural requirements for such sophisticated abilities. However, emotions are understood in humans and other vertebrates to be multifaceted brain states, comprising dissociable subjective, cognitive, behavioural and physiological components. In addition, accumulating literature is providing evidence of the impressive cognitive capacities and behavioural flexibility of invertebrates. Alongside these, within the past few years, a number of studies have adapted methods for assessing emotions in humans and other animals, to invertebrates, with intriguing results. Sea slugs, bees, crayfish, snails, crabs, flies and ants have all been shown to display various cognitive, behavioural and/or physiological phenomena that indicate internal states reminiscent of what we consider to be emotions. Given the limited neural architecture of many invertebrates, and the powerful tools available within invertebrate research, these results provide new opportunities for unveiling the neural mechanisms behind emotions and open new avenues towards the pharmacological manipulation of emotion and its genetic dissection, with advantages for disease research and therapeutic drug discovery. Here, we review the increasing evidence that invertebrates display some form of emotion, discuss the various methods used for assessing emotions in invertebrates and consider what can be garnered from further emotion research on invertebrates in terms of the evolution and underlying neural basis of emotion in a comparative context.

Cognitive appraisal of environmental stimuli induces emotion-like states in fish

The occurrence of emotions in non-human animals has been the focus of debate over the years. Recently, an interest in expanding this debate to non-tetrapod vertebrates and to invertebrates has emerged. Within vertebrates, the study of emotion in teleosts is particularly interesting since they represent a divergent evolutionary radiation from that of tetrapods, and thus they provide an insight into the evolution of the biological mechanisms of emotion. We report that Sea Bream exposed to stimuli that vary according to valence (positive, negative) and salience (predictable, unpredictable) exhibit different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states. Since according to the dimensional theory of emotion valence and salience define a two-dimensional affective space, our data can be interpreted as evidence for the occurrence of distinctive affective states in fish corresponding to each the four quadrants of the core affective space. Moreover, the fact that the same stimuli presented in a predictable vs. unpredictable way elicited different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states, suggests that stimulus appraisal by the individual, rather than an intrinsic characteristic of the stimulus, has triggered the observed responses. Therefore, our data supports the occurrence of emotion-like states in fish that are regulated by the individual’s perception of environmental stimuli.

Vocal correlates of emotional reactivity within and across contexts in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa)

Vocalizations have long been recognized to encode information about an individual's emotional state and, as such, have contributed to the study of emotions in animals. However, the potential of vocalizations to also encode information about an individual's emotional reactivity has received much less attention. In this study, we aimed to test whether the vocalizations of domestic pigs contain correlates of emotional reactivity that are consistent between different contexts. We recorded vocalizations of 120 young female pigs in an experimental arena in two consecutive recording contexts, social isolation and an encounter with a familiar human. Simultaneously, we measured their heart rate and behaviour to determine their emotional reactivity in the same context (within-context). In addition, we aimed to determine the subjects' emotional reactivity in other contexts (across-context) by measuring their behaviour in four common tests of emotional reactivity, the human approach test, the open door test, the open field test and the novel object test. Using a cluster analysis, we identified four different call types. Significant inter-context correlations were found for all call types, suggesting that pig vocalizations are consistent within an individual across contexts. The call rate and the proportions of the individual call types were found to correlate significantly with indices of emotional reactivity both within and across contexts. Thereby, we found more significant correlations to indices of emotional reactivity within context (behavioural and physiological response during recording) compared to across context (behavioural response in the four emotional reactivity tests). The consistency of the vocal correlates to emotional reactivity between the different contexts depended on the call type. While we found moderate evidence that the high grunt is indicative of more active, more explorative and less fearful individuals both within as well as across contexts, the other call types provided less consistent results. Thus, it seems that some call types are better suited to provide information on a caller's emotional reactivity than others, and further research is needed to clarify the underlying influential factors.

Do Insects Have Emotions? Some Insights from Bumble Bees

While our conceptual understanding of emotions is largely based on human subjective experiences, research in comparative cognition has shown growing interest in the existence and identification of “emotion-like” states in non-human animals. There is still ongoing debate about the nature of emotions in animals (especially invertebrates), and certainly their existence and the existence of certain expressive behaviors displaying internal emotional states raise a number of exciting and challenging questions. Interestingly, at least superficially, insects (bees and flies) seem to fulfill the basic requirements of emotional behavior. Yet, recent works go a step further by adopting terminologies and interpretational frameworks that could have been considered as crude anthropocentrism and that now seem acceptable in the scientific literature on invertebrate behavior and cognition. This change in paradigm requires, therefore, that the question of emotions in invertebrates is reconsidered from a cautious perspective and with parsimonious explanations. Here we review and discuss this controversial topic based on the recent finding that bumblebees experience positive emotions while experiencing unexpected sucrose rewards, but also incorporating a broader survey of recent literature in which similar claims have been done for other invertebrates. We maintain that caution is warranted before attributing emotion-like states to honey bees and bumble bees as some experimental caveats may undermine definitive conclusions. We suggest that interpreting many of these findings in terms of motivational drives may be less anthropocentrically biased and more cautious, at least until more careful experiments warrant the use of an emotion-related terminology.

The Utility of Assessing Nonverbal Communication in the Psychiatric Evaluation

The Utility of Assessing Nonverbal Communication in the Psychiatric Evaluation

When sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy (SHE) met Charles Darwin and Francis Galton.

Sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy (SHE) is characterized by short-lasting seizures patterned by repetitive and stereotyped motor events in the same person. In autosomal dominant SHE, genetic factors play a well-known key role. In The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin quotes a plausible example of SHE illustrated by his cousin Sir Francis Galton: "the gentleman…lay fast asleep on his back in bed, raising his right arm slowly in front of his face, up to his forehead, and then dropping it with a jerk, so that the wrist fell heavily on the bridge of his nose. The trick did not occur every night, but occasionally, and was independent of any ascertained cause. Sometimes it was repeated incessantly for an hour or more." Similar manifestations during sleep occurred also in the patient's son and granddaughter, suggesting an autosomal inheritance without sex relationship. Differential diagnosis with REM behavior disorder and other parasomnias is discussed. To our knowledge, this could be the first description of a stereotyped SHE pattern with genetic transmission.

Design and Analysis of Smart Sensing System for Animal Emotions Recognition

Research Article published by International Journal of Computer Applications Volume 169 – No.11, July 2017

Qualitative Behaviour Assessment of horses exposed to short-term emotional treatments

Assessing emotion in animals is fundamental to the study of animal welfare with methodologies for reliable and valid assessments being highly desirable. Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) is based on the assumption that human observers are capable of integrating details of animals’ behavioural expressions using descriptors (e.g. calm, playful) that reflect the animals’ putative emotional experiences. Our study aimed at assessing how treatments assumed to induce different short-term emotional states of both positive and negative valence would affect the observers’ judgements of horses’ behavioural expressions. To this end, 16 horses were each exposed to two positive (grooming, food anticipation) and two negative treatments (food competition, waving a plastic bag) while being video-recorded. Using a Free Choice Profiling methodology, fifteen observers who were blind to treatment were asked to describe and score the horses’ behavioural expressions based on 45s long video clips. General Procrustes Analysis revealed consensus between the observers’ judgements. Three main dimensions of behavioural expression were identified, explaining 84.7% of the variation between horses. Dimension 1 (D1) was positively associated with the terms ‘calm/relaxed/content’ and negatively with the terms ‘nervous/stressed’, whereas dimension 2 (D2) was described as ranging from ‘irritated/impatient/angry’ to ‘frightened/insecure’, and dimension 3 (D3) was labelled as ranging from ‘curious/interested’ to ‘aggressive/irritated’. Linear mixed-effect models revealed an effect of treatment on the horse scores on all three dimensions (D1: F4,60=86.90, p<0.0001; D2: F4,60=69.57, p<0.0001, D3: F4,60=11.05, p<0.0001). In line with our hypotheses, horses were judged as ‘calm/relaxed/content’ (D1) during grooming, whereas they were assessed as ‘stressed/nervous’ (D1) and ‘insecure/frightened’ (D2) when exposed to the plastic bag. In the two food treatments (food anticipation, food competition), horses were judged as ‘irritated/impatient/angry’ (D2). However, on dimension D3, horses during food anticipation were also assessed as more ‘curious/interested’ than in any other treatment. Our study demonstrates that observers showed consensus in their assessment of horses that were exposed to positive and negative short-term treatments and that they could differentiate between these treatments consistent with our hypotheses. Our results indicate that QBA is a promising tool to complement animal welfare assessments in situations of multiple emotional dimensions of both positive and negative valence.

Coping Style Modifies General and Affective Autonomic Reactions of Domestic Pigs in Different Behavioral Contexts.

Based on individual adaptive strategies (coping), animals may react differently to environmental challenges in terms of behavior and physiology according to their emotional perception. Emotional valence as well as arousal may be derived by measuring vagal and sympathetic tone of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). We investigated the situation-dependent autonomic response of 16 domestic pigs with either a reactive or a proactive coping style, previously selected according to the backtest which is accepted in piglets to assess escape behavior. At 11 weeks of age, the pigs were equipped with an implantable telemetric device, and heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and their respective variabilities (HRV, BPV) were recorded for 1 h daily over a time period of 10 days and analyzed in four behavioral contexts (resting, feeding, idling, handling). Additionally, the first minute of feeding and handling was used for a short-term analysis of these parameters in 10-s intervals. Data from day 1–3 (period 1) and day 8–10 (period 2) were grouped into two separate periods. Our results revealed general differences between the coping styles during feeding, resting and handling, with proactive pigs showing higher HR compared to reactive pigs. This elevated HR was based on either lower vagal (resting) or elevated sympathetic activation (feeding, handling). The short-term analysis of the autonomic activation during feeding revealed a physiological anticipation reaction in proactive pigs in period 1, whereas reactive pigs showed this reaction only in period 2. Food intake was characterized by sympathetic arousal with concurrent vagal withdrawal, which was more pronounced in proactive pigs. In contrast, neither coping style resulted in an anticipation reaction to handling. Vagal activation increased in reactive pigs during handling, while proactive pigs showed an increase in sympathetically driven arousal in period 2. Our findings confirm significant context-related differences in the general autonomic reaction of pigs with different coping styles. Additionally, the two coping styles differ in their affective appraisal over the time course of the experiment, underlining the importance of taking individual differences into account when studying affect and emotion in humans and animals.

チャールズ・ダーウィンの写真術 : 『人及び動物の情動表現』(一八七二)についての写真史的考察(分科会II-C[映像論],研究発表II,第六十回美学会全国大会報告発表要旨)

チャールズ・ダーウィンの写真術 : 『人及び動物の情動表現』(一八七二)についての写真史的考察(分科会II-C[映像論],研究発表II,第六十回美学会全国大会報告発表要旨)

Is your dog empathic? Developing a Dog Emotional Reactivity Survey.

Dogs' seemingly empathic behaviour attracts general and scientific attention alike. Behaviour tests are usually not sufficiently realistic to evoke empathic-like behaviour; therefore we decided to ask owners about their experiences with their dogs in emotionally loaded situations. Owners from Hungary (N = 591) and from Germany (N = 2283) were asked to rate their level of agreement on a 1–5 Likert scale with statements about the reactivity of their dogs to their emotions and to other dogs’ behaviour. We created two scales with satisfactory internal reliability: reactivity to the owner’s emotion and reactivity to other dogs’ behaviour. Based on an owner-dog personality matching theory, we hypothesised that the owner’s empathy, as measured by the subscale on the cooperativeness character factor of the human personality, will correlate with their dog’s emotional reactivity in emotionally loaded situations. In addition we also examined how anthropomorphism, contagious yawning, attitude toward the dog are related to emotional reactivity in dogs as perceived by the owner. In addition we examined how owners rate dog pictures. We found that the scale scores were largely independent from demographic and environmental variables like breed, sex, age, age at acquiring, keeping practices, training experiences and owner's age. However, anthropomorphic and emotional attitude of the owners probably biased the responses. In the German sample more empathic owners reported to have more emotionally reactive dog, as expected by the personality matching theory. More empathic owners reported to have fewer problems with their dogs and they rated a puppy picture as more cute in both countries. 62% of owners from Hungary and 36% of owner from Germany agreed with the statement “My dog is more important for me than any human being”. In Germany, more empathic owners agreed less with this statement and indicated that their dogs have a tendency for contagious yawning. Owners whose attitudes toward their dogs were anthropomorphic (agreed more with the statement that “My dog thinks like a child”), perceived their dogs as more reactive to their emotions. This findings highlights the importance of testing the attitudes of the respondents when they assess the personality and the emotions of animals. The criterion validity of the Dog Emotional Reactivity Survey should be confirmed by objective behavioural tests.

Behavior and body surface temperature as welfare indicators in selected sheep regularly brushed by a familiar observer

Research on emotions in farm animals has increasingly contributed to their welfare. We aimed to study behavioral and body temperature responses of dorper and white dorper sheep regularly brushed on their ventral neck, lateral chest, and withers. We performed 3-minute assessments in prebrushing, brushing, and postbrushing phases. Vocalization, ear postures and changes, half-closed eyes, and tail wagging were assessed. We also recorded withers (Tw), anal (Ta), and nasal (Tn) temperatures with an infrared thermometer. Vocalization was infrequent throughout the phases. We identified 3 ear postures frequently performed by the animals: raised up (R), horizontal (H), and backward (B). We noted a longer duration of R rather than H posture before brushing than during brushing. By comparing B and H, we observed that dorper sheep performed the B posture for longer, mainly during than postbrushing. When B and R were compared, sheep expressed the B posture for longer during brushing than both prebrushing and postbrushing phases; dorpers and male sheep also performed the B posture for longer. The results suggest higher performance of B and H postures during the stimulus and that their expression might be associated with a positive, relaxing state of the animals. No significant result was found for ear changes. Sheep showed half-closed eyes mainly in brushing and postbrushing phases, in comparison with the prebrushing phase, indicating that brushing might have elicited a relaxing state in the animals, which might have persisted after the stimulus. Only 4 male sheep wagged their tails, mostly when brushed. We also noted attention-seeking behaviors, including following the observer, leaning against the brush with the head or neck, and stretching the neck when brushed. The results on body temperatures indicated higher variance for Tw in relation to Tn and Ta, which had similar variances. Pairwise comparisons indicated that Tw was higher in postbrushing than in the prebrushing phase; Tn was also higher in the postbrushing phase than in both prebrushing and brushing phases, suggesting an increase in Tw and Tn temperatures after the stimulus. No significant differences were reported for Ta. Brushing might have elicited a positive state in sheep. Ear postures and half-closed eyes may be useful tools for assessing emotions in sheep, as well as withers and nasal temperatures. Furthermore, breed may be a highly significant effect on the expression of ear postures in sheep.

Animal Research in Higher Education: Engaging the Moral and Ethical Conversation

Faculty and staff are rightly concerned with the moral and ethical dimensions of human relationships on campus. Yet, they rarely discuss the animals with whom they share their campuses and larger world. In this article, the author reflects on her experience on an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to raise questions about animals in higher education research, amid changing understandings of human/animal relationships, and growing scientific evidence of animal cognition and emotion. In conclusion, the author suggests that faculty and staff and students need to engage these conversations to be informed, involved citizens and whole human beings.

The study of emotion in animals

The study of emotion in animals

Living Pictures: The Art of Staging in Contemporary Photography

Living PicturesThe Art of Staging in Contemporary Photography Kristine Somerville Click for larger view View full resolution The Dining Room (Francis Place) (II), 1997 © Sarah Jones, courtesy Maureen Paley, London [End Page 33] Click for larger view View full resolution The Dining Room (Francis Place) (VI), 1997 © Sarah Jones, courtesy Maureen Paley, London In Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth, the Wellington Brys, a couple insecure about their social standing in New York society, want to attract new friends. To succeed, they must pull off a bold party. After careful thought, the “two baits” they use are an evening of expensive music and tableaux vivants, a series of living pictures popular among upper-class Victorians. The Brys enlist a dozen fashionable young women and costume them as characters from paintings by Goya, Van Dyck, Titian, and Watteau. The women model scenes of nymphs dancing across a patch of flower-strewn grass or garlanding an altar until the final red velvet curtain opens on Lily Bart, the novel’s protagonist, presented without artifice. She is herself the work of art. While this moment marks Lily’s social triumph, it also displays the era’s love of the art of staging. With attention to lighting, costumes, props, backdrops, and set pieces, they re-created lushly theatrical scenes from classical art. [End Page 34] Of the constructed tableaux, Wharton writes, “To unfinished minds they remain, in spite of every enhancement of art, only a superior kind of wax-works; but to the responsive fancy they may give magic glimpses of the boundary world between fact and imagination.” Click for larger view View full resolution The Dining Room Table (Francis Place) (III), 1998 © Sarah Jones, courtesy Maureen Paley, London In the late eighteenth century, Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador to Naples, introduced what she called “attitudes” to European society. Draped in a simple shawl, her hair down around her shoulders, she used gesture and expression to transform herself into figures from classical sculptures and vases. Though at first they considered it improper, Victorians could not resist the performative charm of Lady Hamilton’s attitudes, and the popular entertainment quickly evolved into elaborate tableaux. Transformation into imaginary characters offered a socially acceptable way of flaunting a woman’s beauty; she could let down her hair, kick off her slippers, and slip into a revealing [End Page 35] Click for larger view View full resolution Ryan Schude, The Diner. Sun Valley, California. 2008 [End Page 36] Click for larger view View full resolution Ryan Schude, The Saturn. Mid-City, Los Angeles. 2007 costume. Trying on alter egos represented a form of emancipation from rigid social roles. When photography was invented in 1839, the familiar practice of role playing and staging scenes for tableaux became a natural subject for the new medium. People were quick to grasp the potential of the photograph as a virtual stage. Photographers became directors, posing “actors,” choosing the sets, props, and costumes, and determining the lighting and placement in implied narratives. Early examples of the influence of tableaux vivants on Victorian photography are plentiful. At an estate near Scotland, between 1843 and 1847, English photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson made photographic illustrations of scenes from Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Antiquary, posing their figures in front of handmade backdrops and using atmospheric lighting. For his photographs, Swedish-born Oscar Gustave Rejlander hired actors from traveling tableau vivant groups and arranged them like theatrical performers [End Page 38] Click for larger view View full resolution Jonathan Hobin, diana’s dead, In the Playroom, 2010 Click for larger view View full resolution Jonathan Hobin, The Twins, In the Playroom, 2010 [End Page 39] Click for larger view View full resolution Jonathan Hobin, Triple Threat, In the Playroom, 2013 in front of a backdrop painted with a landscape and framed by a large curtain on either side. Charles Darwin later hired him to shoot several photographic illustrations for his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Julia Margaret Cameron cast well-known public figures as characters in her neighbor Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Idylls of the King, a retelling of the Arthurian...

Developing Children’s Ability to Recognize Animal Emotions – What Does It Take? A Study at the Zoo

Abstract Several factors are known to affect children’s identification of human emotions, but information is virtually inexistent regarding how they develop their ability to identify animal emotions. I this study we approached factors likely to influence children’s identification of animal emotions in zoos settings, such as age, variables related to information and experience with animals, the quality of animal facilities and children’s sensitivity to the animals’ captive environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2 European zoos with 164 children (ages 3-13yrs old) in front of chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan facilities during emotional events. Questions included information on pet ownership, zoo visits and multiple other forms of contact with animals. A coding scheme was created following content analysis and answers were coded for emotion identification, exposure/information, environmental awareness, setting and demographic variables. Most children correctly identified emotion events (87,2%). Following the inspection of the distribution of the various types of relevant experience, and of the correlations between possible predictors and accurate emotion identification, we tested a regression model with age, pet ownership and visiting animal sanctuaries as predictors. The model explained 41, 6% of variance and confirmed that all three variables made a significant contribution to accurate emotion identification. These results suggest that children’s identification of animal emotions might be influenced by maturation and relevant informative experience - features that are common to the identification of human emotions. We discuss further ways to explore the roles of information and of developing processes that may play a role in the identification of animal emotions.

Central Ghrelin Resistance Permits the Overconsolidation of Fear Memory

BackgroundThere are many contradictory findings about the role of the hormone ghrelin in aversive processing, with studies suggesting that ghrelin signaling can both inhibit and enhance aversion. Here, we characterize and reconcile the paradoxical role of ghrelin in the acquisition of fearful memories. MethodsWe used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure endogenous acyl-ghrelin and corticosterone at time points surrounding auditory fear learning. We used pharmacological (systemic and intra-amygdala) manipulations of ghrelin signaling and examined several aversive and appetitive behaviors. We also used biotin-labeled ghrelin to visualize ghrelin binding sites in coronal brain sections of amygdala. All work was performed in rats. ResultsIn unstressed rodents, endogenous peripheral acyl-ghrelin robustly inhibits fear memory consolidation through actions in the amygdala and accounts for virtually all interindividual variability in long-term fear memory strength. Higher levels of endogenous ghrelin after fear learning were associated with weaker long-term fear memories, and pharmacological agonism of the ghrelin receptor during the memory consolidation period reduced fear memory strength. These fear-inhibitory effects cannot be explained by changes in appetitive behavior. In contrast, we show that chronic stress, which increases both circulating endogenous acyl-ghrelin and fear memory formation, promotes profound loss of ghrelin binding sites in the amygdala and behavioral insensitivity to ghrelin receptor agonism. ConclusionsThese studies provide a new link between stress, a novel type of metabolic resistance, and vulnerability to excessive fear memory formation and reveal that ghrelin can regulate negative emotionality in unstressed animals without altering appetite.

The influence of a 2-benzamido-2-(2-oxoindolin-3-iliden) acetic acid derivative on the behavioral activity of rats after traumatic brain injury

We studied the influence of a derivative of 2-benzamido-2-(2-oxoindolin-2-iliden) acetic acid, which is designated as ZNM, on locomotor and orienting–exploratory activity, the state of muscle tonus, and coordination of movements, as well as on the physical stamina of rats after a moderate closed traumatic brain injury. It was revealed that the ZNM derivative promotes a change of the locomotor activity profile with an increase in orienting–exploratory activity and a decrease in the emotionality in animals, an increase in physical stamina in the swimming test with a load, and improved coordination of movements in the rod rotating test. The results of the studies indicate that the pharmacological activity profile of ZNM is similar to that of the reference drug mexidol: cerebroprotective, anxiolytic, and sedative effects.

Emotional Matters: Innovative software brings emotional intelligence to our digital devices.

In 1872, Charles Darwin published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, in which he argued that mammals show emotion reliably in their faces. Since then, thousands of studies have confirmed the robustness of Darwin's argument in many fields, including linguistics, semiotics, social psychology, and computer science. More interestingly, several studies, including those of renowned psychologist Paul Ekman, demonstrated that basic emotions are, indeed, universal. Affectiva, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff located in Waltham, Massachusetts, builds a variety of products that harness the two main characteristics of facial expressions-robustness and universality-to measure and analyze emotional responses.

The neural basis of understanding the expression of the emotions in man and animals.

Humans cannot help but attribute human emotions to non-human animals. Although such attributions are often regarded as gratuitous anthropomorphisms and held apart from the attributions humans make about each other’s internal states, they may be the product of a general mechanism for flexibly interpreting adaptive behavior. To examine this, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans to compare the neural mechanisms associated with attributing emotions to humans and non-human animal behavior. Although undergoing fMRI, participants first passively observed the facial displays of human, non-human primate and domestic dogs, and subsequently judged the acceptability of emotional (e.g. ‘annoyed’) and facial descriptions (e.g. ‘baring teeth’) for the same images. For all targets, emotion attributions selectively activated regions in prefrontal and anterior temporal cortices associated with causal explanation in prior studies. These regions were similarly activated by both human and non-human targets even during the passive observation task; moreover, the degree of neural similarity was dependent on participants’ self-reported beliefs in the mental capacities of non-human animals. These results encourage a non-anthropocentric view of emotion understanding, one that treats the idea that animals have emotions as no more gratuitous than the idea that humans other than ourselves do.