Humans and horses have had a strong connection for generations.
But that connection may be even stronger than we thought.
Hey animal lovers, Lissette here for DNews.
When I was a little girl, I wanted a pony.
They’re so beautiful and majestic, but today science is telling us they’re also pretty
smart.
In a recent study published in the journal Biology Letters, researchers found that horses
can distinguish between different human facial expressions.
They were able to figure this out by showing the horses photographs of either angry or
happy male faces and then noting the horses’ responses.
When the horses were presented with an angry face, they exhibited left-gaze bias.
This basically means that the horses turned their heads to look more with their left eye
towards the right side of the face on the photograph.
When they were presented with a happy face, they didn’t express this same bias.
In the case of the horses, this left-gaze bias with the angry faces versus the happy
human faces, showed that they could detect a difference between these two human expressions.
Left-gaze bias is also used to study emotions in both humans and animals, and although it
may vary by species, some studies have shown emotions are perceived as more prominently
expressed on the right side of a person’s face.
So, as you might guess, animals detecting different human facial expressions isn’t
something new…
According to research, other animals like dogs and pigeonscan distinguish between faces
and expressions.
Researchers at the University of Iowa, found that pigeons can see similarities among human
faces when it comes to identity and emotion.
Essentially, the pigeons could tell when the photographs they were shown were of the same
person and when the emotions of different people were similar.
And, the research on dogs is particularly robust.
In one study, researchers at Azabu University, found dogs could learn to pick out photographs
of smiling human faces from those with blank expressions.
And researchers from Kyoto University showed that dogs can match their owner’s face to
their owner’s voice.
Furthermore, a study on 22 dogs from the University of Lincoln showed a very similar result to
the horse study.
The dogs more strongly exhibited a left-gaze bias when they looked at negative facial expressions
than positive ones.
So if this dog study shows a similar result to this new horse study, what makes it so
special?
Well, because in addition to measuring the horses’ external physical reactions, researchers
also collected internal data - specifically their heart rate.
The horses’ heart rates accelerated at different rates depending on whether the faces shown
were angry or happy ones.
As one of the researchers explains, “The reaction to the angry facial expressions was
particularly clear -- there was a quicker increase in their heart rate."
Which is huge!
According to the researchers, this makes it the first in all animal studies to show a
differential heart rate response to human facial expressions.
It suggests that on top of recognizing the difference between what the two facial expressions
look like, the horse might know what the angry expression means.
A rapidly increasing heart rate is associated with threatening situations.
Again, to quote one of the study’s researchers, “in this context, recognising angry faces
may act as a warning system, allowing horses to anticipate negative human behaviour such
as rough handling.”
This makes sense as horses are highly social animals, and emotional awareness is helpful
to the functioning and survival of highly social groups.
Now, as one of the researchers points out, we can’t conclude from this research that
horses evolved an ability to recognize human faces because of co-evolution with humans
or if each individual horse simply learned how to read faces during its own lifetime.
Or it could be because of something else.
But what’s clear is that horses may be more clued into our emotions than we think.
Maybe horses should be man’s best friend?
What do you think?
Let us know in the comments below and remember to subscribe to DNews.
So if some animals can recognize our emotions, does this mean they can also feel some of
the same emotions we do?
Check out this episode on whether animals can empathize to find out