An insight for the first time on the manner in which goats are able to read human expressions has been provided by a new study.
The study has found that goats have the ability to distinguish between the various facial expressions of humans and the researchers have concluded that goats prefer to interact with people who have or express happiness on their faces.
This path breaking study into the manner goats read human emotional expressions was done by a group of scientists at the Queen Mary University of London. The study conclusions done with goats also imply that this ability among animals to obtain an understanding of the human emotions is not limited only to those that have been domesticated as companions by human over the ages such as dogs and horses among others.
The researchers explained the manner in which a set of 20 goats expressed their ability to interact with images of positivity or happiness and negativity or anger through the human facial expressions. The study concluded that goats preferred to or interacted more with such faces that exuded happiness.
Dr Alan McElligott who led the study said, "The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets."
There was a notably greater interaction in the goats to the images of faces that beamed happiness that the animals looked at, the team found. The animals far easily approached such images and then explored those images with their snouts.
This reaction among the goats were more pronounced when the ages of the happy faces were placed on the right of the test arena which suggested that the heft hemisphere of their brains goats are used for processing of positive emotion.
First author Dr Christian Nawroth said, "We already knew that goats are very attuned to human body language, but we did not know how they react to different human emotional expressions, such as anger and happiness. Here, we show for the first time that goats do not only distinguish between these expressions, but they also prefer to interact with happy ones."
The research has larger implication and can be put to use for understanding the manner in which animals process human emotions, claimed the researchers.
Co-author of the research paper Natalia Albuquerque said that the results of the study have been able to open new paths to understanding the “emotional lives of all domestic animals.”
The complete findings of the study have been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
(Source:asianage.com)
The study has found that goats have the ability to distinguish between the various facial expressions of humans and the researchers have concluded that goats prefer to interact with people who have or express happiness on their faces.
This path breaking study into the manner goats read human emotional expressions was done by a group of scientists at the Queen Mary University of London. The study conclusions done with goats also imply that this ability among animals to obtain an understanding of the human emotions is not limited only to those that have been domesticated as companions by human over the ages such as dogs and horses among others.
The researchers explained the manner in which a set of 20 goats expressed their ability to interact with images of positivity or happiness and negativity or anger through the human facial expressions. The study concluded that goats preferred to or interacted more with such faces that exuded happiness.
Dr Alan McElligott who led the study said, "The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets."
There was a notably greater interaction in the goats to the images of faces that beamed happiness that the animals looked at, the team found. The animals far easily approached such images and then explored those images with their snouts.
This reaction among the goats were more pronounced when the ages of the happy faces were placed on the right of the test arena which suggested that the heft hemisphere of their brains goats are used for processing of positive emotion.
First author Dr Christian Nawroth said, "We already knew that goats are very attuned to human body language, but we did not know how they react to different human emotional expressions, such as anger and happiness. Here, we show for the first time that goats do not only distinguish between these expressions, but they also prefer to interact with happy ones."
The research has larger implication and can be put to use for understanding the manner in which animals process human emotions, claimed the researchers.
Co-author of the research paper Natalia Albuquerque said that the results of the study have been able to open new paths to understanding the “emotional lives of all domestic animals.”
The complete findings of the study have been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
(Source:asianage.com)
