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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 14, 2026

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Positive affective contagion in bumble bees.

José E Romero-González1, Zhenwei Zhuo2, Lulu Chen1

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Multi-organ Injury Prevention and Treatment, Key Laboratory of Mental Health of the Ministry of Education, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Psychiatric Disorders, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Psychiatric Disorders, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine for Qingzhi Diseases, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Brain Function Repair and Regeneration, Department of Psychiatry, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|October 23, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers found positive affective contagion in bumble bees, demonstrating that emotions can transfer between bees visually. This suggests affective contagion is an evolutionarily widespread mechanism in social insects and vertebrates.

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Insect Behavior
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Affective contagion, a key aspect of empathy, is well-documented in social vertebrates.
  • Its presence in invertebrates, particularly insects, remains largely unexplored.
  • Understanding affective contagion in insects can shed light on the evolution of sociality and empathy.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the existence and mechanisms of affective contagion in bumble bees (Bombus terrestris).
  • To determine if positive affective states can be transferred between individual bees.
  • To explore the sensory modalities involved in this affective transfer.

Main Methods:

  • A cognitive bias paradigm was employed using trained bumble bees and novel ambiguous stimuli (colored flowers).
  • Bees were exposed to conspecifics in either a positive or neutral affective state.
  • Judgment bias towards ambiguous stimuli was measured as an indicator of affective state transfer.

Main Results:

  • Bumble bees exposed to a conspecific in a positive affective state exhibited a significantly positive judgment bias.
  • These bees were quicker and more likely to interact with ambiguous floral cues.
  • Affective transfer occurred even without physical contact, suggesting visual transmission.

Conclusions:

  • Positive affective contagion is present in bumble bees, a social insect.
  • Affective contagion may be a conserved, evolutionarily widespread mechanism across social vertebrates and insects.
  • This finding has implications for understanding the evolution of empathy and social behavior in insects.