Secondary emotions in non-primate species? Behavioural reports and subjective claims by animal owners

The Emotional Lives of Companion Animals: Attachment and Subjective Claims by Owners of Cats and Dogs

“…Although our findings suggest that respondents attributed all posited basic and complex emotions to their companion animals, we saw a general trend toward basic emotions (with the exception of sadness) being more commonly attributed to companion animals than complex emotions. One complex emotion-jealousy-was an exception to this finding, and the frequency of its attribution to companion animals in this study parallels earlier findings of complex emotions in animals (Morris, Doe and Godsell 2008). A general trend in predominately complex emotions attributed to dogs was also observed, in comparison to a greater attribution of predominately basic emotions to cats.…”

“…Rather than being confounded by anthropomorphic interpretations, owner reports have been demonstrated to provide reliable and consistent interpretation of their animal's behavior (Morris, Doe and Godsell 2008;Mariti et al 2012). Additionally, owners are the primary source of information regarding companion-animal behavior problems (Bennett and Rohlf 2007;Blackwell et al 2008;Arhant et al 2010), and are able to identify overt behavioral indicators of stress (e.g., trembling, crying, or excessive barking), indicative of reduced welfare (Mariti et al 2012).…”

Humans attribute emotions to a robot that shows simple behavioural patterns borrowed from dog behaviour

“…Dogs are able to develop individual attachment relationship with humans even in adulthood (Gácsi, Topál, Miklósi, Dóka, & Csányi, 2001;Valsecchi, Previde, Accorsi, & Fallani, 2010), follow referential pointing gestures provided by humans (Kaminski, Bräuer, Call, & Tomasello, 2009;Soproni, Miklósi, Topál, & Csányi, 2002), are capable of social referencing (Merola, Prato-Previde, & Marshall-Pescini, 2012) as well as have different personalities resembling human personality types (Gosling, Kwan, & John, 2003;Turcsán, Range, Virányi, Miklósi, & Kubinyi, 2012). For the current study it is especially important to point out that dogs can successfully communicate and cooperate with humans that is they show social behaviours that humans can easily understand without massive prior learning (dogs' showing behaviour: Miklósi, Polgárdi, Topál, & Csányi, 2000; children recognise emotional content of dog barks: Pongrácz, Molnár, Dóka, & Miklósi, 2011; disabled people recognise assistance dogs' conflict behaviour: Gácsi, Szakadát, & Miklósi, 2013;similarities in the emotion processing at the neural level in dogs and humans: , and most importantly, dog owners tend to attribute complex emotions to their pets (secondary emotions: Morris, Doe, & Godsell, 2008;guilt: Hecht, Miklósi, & Gácsi, 2012).…”

Public attitudes towards grief in animals

“…Other studies have found that people believed animals could experience guilt, shame (Rasmussen 1995), and jealousy (Morris et al 2008). Emotions are therefore not seen as an exclusively human domain.…”

“…Establishing the gap between these two knowledge bases would then provide the basis for further education of the public. Studies which examine public opinion on the types of emotions animals may feel have been conducted, but these have been limited to dogs and other pets (Rasmussen 1995;Morris et al 2008). This questionnaire analysed the demographic effects on responses in order to most effectively target future education of the public regarding scientific evidence for grief in animals and the management practices that may produce such an emotional challenge.…”