Goats prefer happy people

It never hurts to smile. Now, in addition, we know that if we sketch a smile to certain animals, they will be able to identify our happiness. It is what emerges from a recent study, which throws this amazing conclusion: goats prefer happy people. Are you curious and you want to know more? Do not forget to read this article.

How was it discovered that goats prefer happy people?

Those responsible for this assertion belong to the Queen Mary University, in London. These researchers have recently published the results of the research in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

To reach such a conclusion, a simple but effective device was mounted: a wall with two images, separated between them by approximately 1.5 meters.

The two photos represented the same person. However, in one of them the expression was angry, while in the other it was smiling.

Next, they let a goat into the enclosure. For an approximate time of 30 seconds, the animal was free to interact with the two photos. This action was repeated with 20 different goats.

The surprising conclusion

When observing each of the animals, the researchers observed that most preferred happy faces. Goats interacted more frequently and were closer to smiling faces.

Evidently, this led researchers to think that goats are able to distinguish our facial expressions. But this experiment revealed another curious data from the statistical point of view:

The interaction with happy faces was greater when they were on the right side. For researchers, this discovery suggests that goats use the left hemisphere of the brain when they have to process positive emotions.

This phenomenon is consistent with other research that links happiness and positive emotions with activity of the left hemisphere. Until now, we knew that goats could 'read' the body language of humans, but these results corroborate that they can read our facial expressions.

Are there more animals able to read our smile?

It is clear that domestication has been shaping the behavior of some animals. This has made them adapt more easily to human environments.

Therefore, the pets most accustomed to dealing with human os, like horses and dogs , they are able to decipher our facial expressions.

However, it was not known if this was possible in domesticated animals dedicated to production, such as goats. Now we know that yes, and that without a doubt the goats prefer happy people.