Animal emotions and consciousness: a preliminary assessment of researchers’ perceptions and biases and prospects for future progress

Abstract

Scientists and philosophers have long struggled with the question of whether non-human animals experience emotions or consciousness. Yet, it is unclear where the scientific consensus on these topics lies today. To address this gap, we administered a survey of professional animal behaviour researchers to assess perceptions regarding (i) the taxonomic distribution of emotions and consciousness in non-human animals, (ii) respondents’ confidence in this assessment, and (iii) attitudes towards pitfalls and potential for progress when addressing these questions. Respondents (n = 100) ascribe emotionality and consciousness to a broad swath of the animal taxonomy, including non-human primates, other mammals, birds and cephalopods. Respondents’ attribution of these phenomena was strongly associated with their confidence in their assessments (R2 > 0.9), with respondents assuming an absence of emotions and consciousness when they were unsure. We also identify an emergent consensus of the components involved in a functional definition of emotions. Researchers are optimistic that tools either currently exist or will exist in the future to rigorously address these questions (>85%) and that animal behaviour, as a field, should do more to encourage research works on emotions (>70%). We discuss implications for publication bias and future work in this area as well as ethical considerations regarding animal care and use.

Keywords

• animal emotion
• consciousness
• experimental philosophy
• animal affect