Animals Remember Previous Facial Expressions that Specific Humans Have Exhibited

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Comparative psychology
• Human-animal interaction

Background:

• Facial expressions are key social signals for humans.
• Animals can discriminate emotions, but memory of emotional expressions is less understood.
• Previous research shows animals remember harm, but not necessarily emotional cues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if horses can remember and use emotional facial expressions of humans.
• To determine if memory of emotional expressions influences subsequent interactions.

Main Methods:

• Horses viewed photographs of angry or happy human faces.
• Several hours later, horses encountered the person from the photograph in a neutral state.
• Human experimenters were unaware of the photograph the horses had seen.

Main Results:

• Horses showed different responses to individuals based on prior emotional expressions.
• Responses were specific to the individual who displayed the emotion, not a stranger.
• Memory of the facial expression guided subsequent interactions.

Conclusions:

• Domestic horses can perceive and remember human emotional facial expressions.
• This memory influences their future behavior towards specific individuals.
• Animals may 'eavesdrop' on human emotional cues to guide social interactions.