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Understanding Animals In the first of a three-part feature, Kathie Gregory explains why there is more to understanding an animal’s emotional state than body language alone
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f you search online, you will find plenty of examples of the main expressions of body language, such as anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and sur prise. But even experts question whether one single basic expression can re ally tell us what someone is thinking or what emotional state they are in. Indeed, we do not always find ourselves in a single emotional state; often, there are several emotions in play and these can change by the second. This means that only paying attention to the basics may result in an inaccurate interpreta tion. We all use body language to get a first impression of a stranger. We also in terpret it to assess what kind of mood a person may be in, and use it to see if what is conveyed matches up with what a person is saying or doing. Some of us are better than others at reading what we see. But without the underlying knowledge to correctly interpret it, there is a risk that we may get it wrong. We are even more likely to misinterpret what we observe when we are assessing someone we don't know, i.e. we generalize. We may even do it without realiz ing. Our generalizing can be completely inaccurate but this is how the brain works. It takes a lot of processing power to quickly assess all the stimuli and in formation that bombard the brain in detail, so once the brain has learned the basics it applies that knowledge to other things that look the same and fit that description, i.e. it looks for patterns.
Snapshot When it comes to animals, how, then, do we learn how to accurately interpret body language? We can start with photo. However, these only provide an in stant snapshot that does not give the context in which the picture was taken or tell you anything about the individual animal. We can teach people to recognize the most obvious emotion on display, but even this is just a basic guide. I actu ally find that it can stop people from looking more deeply to see if there are any other signs in a photo that might lead them to a different conclusion. It also means the brain does its usual thing of basing its decision on the one obvious © Can Stock Photo / lassequintus emotion, potentially ignoring other possibilities. A horse with the ears forward generally means he is relaxed, Photos are useful to help us recognize specific poses or features and the but further forward can mean he is alert, which may indicate emotion generally attached to them. They are also useful for showing examples interest (positive) or fear (negative) of something they won’t recognize till they see it, such as a specific color. Here’s an example: In some cat breeds we can see what is called a ticked coat. This is a fault in some breeds, but is a trait in the Abyssinian cat. It's hard to describe and also hard to imagine what it looks like when someone does describe it to you. But once you've seen it, it is obvious and easy to identify. The same is true for body language, you don't always understand what something is supposed to look like until you see it. For example, it’s easy to see what someone means when they say a horse has thin lips if you have seen an image of a horse with lips that are relaxed and fuller and are comparing that to the thinness you see when he is tense. But we need to know a lot more if we are to correctly interpret why the lips are thin. How did the move ment start, how did it progress and how did it finish? It’s also easy to interpret body language incorrectly when you base your assessment on the typical reason given for a particular pose. There can be various explanations for the same pose, or the pose might be a red herring. This frequently happens when photographing animals playing. The camera clicks at the mo A horse with the ears angled ment when the features are in one position but the common backwards may be feeling either emotion attached to that feature is not at all how the animal angry or scared, but they may also be back when he is listening feels when he is playing. to something or eating
© Can Stock Photo / ESIGHT
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BARKS from the Guild/March 2021
