Animals of science: do animals have emotions and feelings comparable to ours?

Did you know that an emotion is not the same as a feeling? That’s what the scientists tell us. Joy, sadness, anger, fear, these are emotions. Instantaneous, brief and irrational physiological reactions to a situation. In our brain, everything happens at the level of the amygdala. It’s that little element hidden in our brain limbic — the oldest part of our brain, the seat of our emotions — which commands the release ofhormone in response to a stimulus. Then, it is our body which puts itself in movement. Faced with a spider, for example, he recoils or he cries.

Feelings are unique to each of us. They are built on the basis of our mental representations. They can last over time. And they correspond above all to a complex process that takes place in the cortex. The matter grey. This region of the brain in which functions such as memory, reasoning, language or consciousness are played out. It is therefore at this level that the angerwhich is indeed an emotion, if it is repressed, can turn into hatred, which is a feeling.

But then, are animals capable of experiencing feelings? It’s here big debated question within the scientific community. It must be said that, for more than forty years, researchers first argued over the question of emotions. Today, ethologists point out that emotion has three components. First, it has a physiological component that determines how the body reacts to a stimulus. Then there is the behavioral component that allows you to express your emotions. Finally, there remains a cognitive component that leads to a certain choice. It is on this basis that researchers show that many animal species experience emotions. Physiological measurements — such as heart rate — or behavioral observations — ear position or tail posture — can tell scientists about this. There is evidence, for example, that elephants feel sadness when faced with the loss of one of them. Dogs feel joy when their human comes home after a day of work.

Awareness of self and others at the heart of the problem

When it comes to feelings, things get complicated. Because, by definition, they are somewhat the subjective interpretation of emotions. They arise from the fact that we are able to identify the causes and effects of emotions. For researchers who study humans, there is the possibility of asking questions — all the same with the risk of obtaining only socially acceptable or simply erroneous answers, because it is not always obvious to correctly recognize even his own feelings. But the animals themselves are not able to respond.

And if the secret of feelings ultimately resided first in the ability to take self-consciousness? Perhaps a little more in the ability to take another’s point of view? This is the hypothesis supported by certain ethologists. But there are animals that are now known to be aware of their own body. Also known to copy and interpret the emotions of others, to share their desires and even to understand what others believe. Yes yes, you read that right. The experiment was carried out on great apes, our close cousins, of course, but it was conclusive. They have shown themselves capable of understanding even false beliefs. That of a human looking for an object in the last place he saw it. Even though the monkeys witnessed the movement of the object in question.

To find out if and how animals subjectively interpret their emotions into feelings, researchers will still need to conduct further studies. Multi-method studies that can combine behavioral and cognitive observations, and neurophysiological and hormonal data, for example. In the meantime, ethologists suggest assuming that animals are indeed endowed with feelings, until proven otherwise. If only to be able to better meet their needs. A suggestion… not so dumb!