It appears that animals weren't just merely animals, as latest study shows that just like dogs, horses can understand and respond to human emotions as well. Wait, what?
Humans have long believed that they are, by means or another, much extraordinary than any other animals. However, a recent study revealed that many traits once considered uniquely human are shared with animals.
Earlier this year, a group of animal behavior specialists and psychologist from the University of Lincoln in U.K and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, conducted a study that involves 17 untrained pooches, as beforehand reported.
"It revealed that when the pictures and sounds matched the same emotion, dogs would spend longer looking at the human's facial expressions. The research also demonstrates that dogs can create mental images of positive and negative feelings," according to The Linc.
Well, it seems that these stunning disclosures aren't done yet, as most recent news by The Guardian, noted that Psychologists from Sussex University have shown, for the first time that horses recognize and distinguish positive and negative human facial expressions.
Before acquiring such results, the researchers apparently made top notch, large size color prints of the same male human who is grinning and baring his teeth and as well as a photo of him frowning and baring his teeth.
The two different photos were presented by volunteers to the 28 horses from five riding or livery stables one. And shockingly, the horses could really tell the difference.
"What's really interesting about this research is that it shows horses have the ability to read emotions across the species barrier," said Amy Smith, a doctoral student in the university's mammal vocal communication and cognition research group.
"We have known for a long time that horses are a socially sophisticated species but this is the first time we have seen that they can distinguish between positive and negative human facial expressions," she added.
Much the same as dogs, the horses also take a gander at the anger human expressions using the left eye and somehow incited heart palpitations.
"Dogs have been shown to look at angry human faces with the left eye: the reasoning is that the brain's right hemisphere - where information from the left eye is recorded and interpreted - is specialized for dealing with scary or threatening stimuli," as quoted in the same report by The Guardian.
