By
Miss Double ShotOver the weekend, I read the book
Why We Love and learned a bunch about how love works on a biological level.
Cool things Dr. Helen Fisher mentions:
- Animals don't have emotions, right? Ehhh... while they may not be able to express them in a way we understand, certain animals show tendencies that make Dr. Fisher think that they're attached to others. Cockroaches nuzzle antennae, you guys.
- We're unconsciously attracted to people with symmetrical features because back in the day, it meant that they were less susceptible to disease and medical problems.
- 80-year-olds can still experience the same symptoms of lovesickness - with nearly the same amount of intensity - as 18-year-olds can.
Pretty crazy stuff. The book's about 200 pages and is completely worth it if you've got a free afternoon and a curiosity about how love begins, falls apart and starts all over again.
Do you think animals can love or show emotions?
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Comments (21)
I just love that picture! Yes, animals can show emotions. Dogs wag their tails when they're happy =]
I definitely think animals can love...personally I believe it must be much easier for animals to feel love/affection/attachment to someone or something because they don't have all of those complicated and conflicting thoughts we as humans experience when playing the game of love.
And that sounds like a very interesting read...I'm going to have to check it out!
absolutely yes.
yes, I do think they can show emotions. The fact that animals can show or have emotions makes me consider the concept of "doing things based soley off how you feel" or "I made that decision because it felt good" in a new light.
Animals have no emotions.
Depends on what you mean by love. I think animals can definitely show attachment and affection, but whether these qualify as love and whether they are capable of loving as humans do, I'm not so certain.
Of course they can.
I definitely think animals love and show emotion. Why do you think some male species fight another male for a female? If they didn't or couldn't show emotion, none of them would fight. They would just pick any other female that's down to mate.
Maybe they can, and certainly not animals can. People like to think about the things that make them warm and fuzzy. But really, who cares, for example, about mosquitos?
Affection, maybe. Love....not sure. If it is love, it's not quite on the same level as human beings.
i think so. sometimes pets can sense when you're down.
"We're unconsciously attracted to people with symmetrical features because back in the day, it meant that they were less susceptible to disease and medical problems" - i like that =P
animals show affection, and those birds and whatever that stay with only theyre one partner they must have something, but i don't think they feel as such.. perhaps think..
just like the quote up there that says we go fr the healithiest person, so do they.
i don't know about emotions, but dolphins are the only mammal other than human that takes pleasure in sex, or mate for pleasure...
Wow that picture is so sweet. *Rushes to library to grab copy of book!*
I know animals can. We recently obtained two puppies from our neighbour, because our dog fathered them. He tends to bathe them with his tongue -- much like a mother cat, actually. We raised Rocky (pitbull daddy dog) with my cats. My cat Tigger is partial to certain people. Oftentimes, when I return from my father's (always her favourite person) she won't leave my side for weeks, because I smell like his house.
And look at daschounds (sp? weenie dogs?). They grow attached to one person.
Also, when I gave Aries to my aunt and uncle, Tigger showed signs of missing her. We had had Aries for 9 years, and Tigger for nearly 16 now.
Oh with mammals, of course. :D
I completely beieve that animals can love. Pricsilla, our 2 year old puppy, had to be put down because of an advanced case of heartworms. Now everyday her big brother ( same parents, diff. litter) whimpers randomly and will often wonder from room to room, as if looking for something. She also had a blanket she took everywhere. He can't go to the vet or to bed or on a trip without it.
So, yes, I do think animals love.
I know that our Sam kitty loves us very much. He is the most lovey-dovey cat we have ever had.
Here is an example of how Sam expresses his love for me:
Ever since Sam was a kitten (when we got him, he was three months old. He will be eight years old on July 4th), I do this thing where I lightly rub my thumb on his forehead, in one direction, "with" the lay of his fur. I had read somewhere that it simulates a cat-mother's tongue on the forehead; that is a way that mother-cats show affection to their kittens.
Once, a month or so after we had gotten Sam, I woke up in the middle of the night to find Sam sitting next to me, "petting" my forehead with his paw, very softly, in one direction. just like I pet him. He was purring. LOUDLY. Then he started giving me a kind of head-butt. He does that all of the time, now.
Sam is capable of love alright.
@VaultESL - I don't know about that. I've seen "married" animals that were much sweeter to one another than some married people I've met!
Animals are surprisingly so much more cunning/smarter/emotional/affectionate/understanding than we give them credit for.
Maybe love/strong affection for someone is a trait that we carried through evolution... I'm not sure but I think a lot or most species are pack-oriented and rely a lot on mutual relationships to survive so if you're a lonesome ant/bird/human... you might not survive!