The experiment showed that goats like your smile!

Scientists have come to an unusual conclusion – goats are attracted to people with a happy expression.

This conclusion confirms that more species of animals can read and understand the mood of a person than was previously thought.

The experiment took place in England in this way: scientists showed goats a series of two photographs of the same person, one showed an angry expression on his face, and the other a joyful one. Black and white photos were placed on the wall at a distance of 1.3 m from each other, and the goats were free to move around the site, studying them.

photo: Elena Korshak

The reaction of all animals was the same – they approached happy photos more often.

This experience is important for the scientific community, since it can now be assumed that it is not only animals that have a long history of communicating with people, such as horses or dogs, that can understand human emotions.

Now it is clear that rural animals used mainly for food production, such as the same goats, also recognize our facial expressions well.

photo: Elena Korshak

The experiment showed that animals prefer smiling faces, approach them, even not paying attention to angry ones. And they spend more time researching and sniffing good photos than others.

However, it is interesting to note that this effect was only noticeable if the smiling photos were located to the right of the sad ones. When the photos were swapped, there was no particular preference for any of them in the animals.

This phenomenon is most likely due to the fact that goats use only one part of the brain to read information. This is true for many animals. It can be assumed that either only the left hemisphere is designed to recognize emotions, or the right hemisphere can block evil images.

photo: Elena Korshak

A PhD from an English university said: “This study explains a lot of how we communicate with both farm animals and other species. After all, the ability to perceive human emotions is quite possibly possessed not only by pets.

photo: Elena Korshak

The co-author of the experiment from a university in Brazil adds: “Studying the ability to understand emotions among animals has already yielded tremendous results, especially in horses and dogs. However, prior to our experiment, there was no evidence that any other species could do this. Our experience opens the door to the complex world of emotions for all pets.”

In addition, this study may someday become an important foothold for improving the living conditions of livestock, shedding light on the fact that these animals are conscious.