It was long assumed that nonhuman animals don’t have emotions, or that their emotions are qualitatively different from human emotions. However, increasing research into animal behaviour, cognition and emotions has shown that assumption to be false. Many animals – at least all vertebrates – have basic emotions. Behavioural and cognitive research of animals sorely needs to be complemented by emotion science. For that to be possible, there is a need for further development of methods to measure animal emotions.
As knowledge about nonhuman cognitive and emotional processes accumulates, it puts the presumed human uniqueness into a new perspective. Similarly, the relationships of humans with other species amongst us need to be re-evaluated. Human-animal interactions are increasingly studied from multidisciplinary perspectives. In our project, we ask how people recognize and interpret animal emotions. Studies thus far suggest that people are poor at recognizing animal emotions, which has implications e.g. in all contexts where animal welfare depends on human actions, or safety of humans depends on the correct interpretation of animal behaviour.
What factors influence people's ability to recognise the emotional states of other animals? You can now participate in this research by completing a brief survey.
For a long time, it was believed that non-human animals lacked emotions altogether or that their emotional experiences were vastly different from those of humans. However, studies on animal behaviour, cognition, and emotional states have disproven this assumption. Numerous animals—at least all vertebrates—experience fundamental emotions. The fields of animal behavioural science and cognition are in urgent need of insights from emotion science. Advancements in the observation and measurement of animal emotional states are essential to facilitate this understanding.
As we gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes of other species, we must reconsider the supposed uniqueness of our own kind from fresh perspectives. The relationships between humans and animals are increasingly examined from a multidisciplinary standpoint.
When a person observes an animal, what determines whether they comprehend what the animal is feeling? We do not yet know the answer. However, a more profound understanding of animal emotions would be crucial for enhancing their welfare within society, as the emotional experiences of animals—from pleasure to suffering and everything in between—are at the heart of the concept of animal well-being. Our project is a part of sustainable development efforts, steering us towards a just world for all living beings.
Infrared thermography, also known as thermal imaging, is a technology for measuring distributions of surface temperatures at a distance. Several practical applications have already been developed to improve health and welfare of humans and other animals. For example, in human and veterinary medicine thermographic methods are already in use to find suspected sites of local inflammation and nerve damage.
We conduct fundamental research that is needed as ground work to enable development of methods to measure surface temperature changes relating to animal emotions. Before measurement is possible, considerable research effort is still needed to reliably distinguish emotion-linked effects in surface temperature from environmental temperature effects; to explore under which conditions emotion-linked temperature effects become masked by thermoregulation of the body; and to investigate how these effects may differ between species.
Ultimately, measuring animal emotions with thermography has the potential to improve animal welfare in zoos and other facilities, by providing additional information on how the animals are, helping to detect and remedy problems, and to test whether improvements in animals' living conditions have worked as intended.