A team of psychologists has studied the reactions of 28 horses to which they showed photos that contrasted positive and negative human expressions . Faced with angry faces, the animals – which had not received previous training – moved their heads to look at the image with their left eyes, a trait associated with the perception of negative stimuli, given the specialization of the right brain in the processing of threats (Information from the left eye goes to the right side of the brain).
Their heart rate also accelerated and they exhibited stress-related behaviors. The study, published in the scientific journal Biology Letters , concludes that this response indicates that horses understand the meaning of angry faces when they see them , something that had not been detected until now in their interactions with humans.
According to Amy Smith , co-director of the work and member of the Mammal Cognition and Vocal Communication Research Group at the University of Sussex, “we found that horses react more to negative expressions than to positive ones. This could be due to the importance of recognizing threats. In this context, distinguishing angry faces could help them to anticipate mistreatment ”.
Karen McComb , Professor of Animal Cognition and Behavior at the University of Sussex and co-director of the research, indicates that “there are several explanations for our discovery. Horses may have adapted an ancient ability to recognize emotions in other members of their species to their relationships with humans. It may also be that some specimens learn during their life to interpret people’s expressions. What is interesting is the finding that horses are capable of breaking down the barriers between species and recognizing emotions in humans, despite the tremendous difference between the facial morphology of one and the other ”.
