Goats prefer HAPPY PEOPLE

Goats can differentiate between human facial expressions and prefer to interact with happy-looking people.

A new study led by Queen Mary University of London, found evidence that goats read human emotional expressions. Previously, it was believed that only animals with a long history of domestication, such as dogs and horses, could do this.

The team tested how 20 goats interacted with images of positive (happy) and negative (angry) human facial expressions. They found that the goats preferred to look at, and interact with the happy faces.

“The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species,” says study leader Dr Alan Mcelligott. “The abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread, and not just limited to pets.”

The study was carried out at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent. It involved the researchers showing goats pairs of unfamiliar, grey-scale, static human faces of the same individual, one with a happy facial expression, and one that looked angry.

The team found that images of happy faces elicited greater interaction in the goats who looked at the images, approached them and explored them with their snouts. This was particularly the case when the happy faces were positioned on the right of the test arena. It suggests that goats use the left hemisphere of their brains to process positive emotion.