From ScienceAlert.com…
Dogs aren’t the only animals that can hear the emotion in our voices.
According to new research, pigs and horses can also tell the difference between positive and negative expressions in human speech, and it could change how they respond to us.
Previous studies have shown that domesticated horses can read emotions on human faces and hear emotions in human sounds, like growling or laughter.
But this is the first study to compare how domesticated animals discriminate between non-verbal human sounds and sounds from their own species.
The research focused on domesticated pigs and captive wild boars, as well as domesticated horses and captive wild horses from Asia.
All of the animals were played a series of sounds, some of which were from their own species, some of which were from a closely related species and others of which were made by humans.
Each sound recording lasted for a few seconds and expressed some sort of emotional cue, whether positive or negative.
In the end, the authors found all the horses and the domesticated pigs reacted more strongly to negative sounds, irrespective of what animal made them.
After hearing a negative sound from any animal, the horses spent more time walking and less time flicking their tails, suggesting they were being more attentive. The pigs, meanwhile, stood around more and ate less.
