Does my dog sense when I'm sad? Is the neighbor's cat planning its next excursion through the neighborhood? Questions like these occupy many people in everyday life. Researchers at Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have now found out how people around the world think about this. More than 1,000 children and almost 200 adults from 33 communities in 15 countries took part in the study.
The scientists asked people of different ages whether they thought animals could feel and think. The answers were very similar, regardless of which country or culture the respondents came from.
Most people believe that animals generally have thoughts and feelings. But they make a difference when it comes to thinking. Humans are convinced that their own thinking is unique and fundamentally different from that of animals. "The belief in the uniqueness of human thought arises early in life and remains stable throughout the entire lifespan," explains first author Karri Neldner. Prof. Katja Liebal from the University of Leipzig led the study together with Prof. Daniel Haun from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
