There is a lot of evidence that animals can also interpret emotions. They can copy and interpret the emotions of others, they can empathize with the desires of others and it has recently been shown that chimpanzees, for example, also understand what others believe.
LEIDEN UNIVERSITY: We should assume that animals can have feelings too. From an ethical point of view this should inform our dealings with animals, researchers from Leiden University and Utrecht University argue in an opinion article that was published in the scientific journal Affective Science… Some of the leading behavioral scientists in the world have hypothesized that many animal species can have emotions. But whether animals also have feelings is the subject of much debate, and some behavioral scientists believe they do not. This is incorrect, say cognitive psychologist Mariska Kret (Leiden University) and behavioral biologists Jorg Massen (Utrecht University) and Frans de Waal (Emory University and endowed professor in Utrecht).
Based on observations, there is a good chance that animals can also have feelings; it is just very difficult to investigate this. First of all the difference between emotions and feelings. Massen: “An emotion consists of three components: a physiological one that determines how your body reacts to a stimulus, a behavioral one that makes you express emotions and a cognitive one that makes you make a certain choice. For many animal species, it has been shown that they have emotions.”
Feelings go a step further. “Feelings can be thought of as the subjective interpretation of your own emotions,” Kret explains. “Negative emotions can make you feel unhappy, for example. Being able to have feelings also enables you to empathize with the emotions of another person and to think about how you can help them. And for that, an important cognitive principle must be present: being able to take the perspective of that other person.”
In both humans and other animals, much research has been done on emotions and feelings… It is a lot more difficult to determine objectively which feelings an animal has because the interpretation of the test subject plays a role… There is a lot of evidence, though, that animals can also interpret emotions, Kret says. “They can copy and interpret the emotions of others, they can empathize with the desires of others and it has recently been shown that chimpanzees, for example, also understand what others believe.” Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to us and meet all these basic conditions, the authors believe it to be plausible that they also have feelings.
Massen, Kret and De Waal therefore conclude that from an ethical standpoint it is better to let the burden of proof go both ways in this discussion. Massen: “Let’s assume that animals also have feelings unless proven otherwise. And in the meantime, we should continue to study whether and how animals subjectively interpret emotions. If we better understand animals’ emotions and possible feelings, then we will be better able to respond to their needs”. SOURCE…
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