A Study Finds Pigs Are Empathetic and Show Emotions Just Like Us

Pigs are extremely intelligent creatures. They’re social, playful, adorable animals who are so intelligent, they can even play joystick games. Surprisingly, they are also capable of being sensitive toward others’ emotions, as a very interesting study suggests.

We at Bright Side love to see how emotions affect others. And this time, let’s take a look at how animals like pigs manage to ignite that spark of empathy. You’ll probably be surprised with the findings.

To begin with, pigs have complex minds.

Not much is known about how the minds of pigs work, but research shows that they work in a complex way. In fact, studies show that pigs have many traits from animals we consider intelligent. For instance, pigs understand the idea of time and the indication of places, they enjoy exploring, have relationships, are self-aware (in front of mirrors), and even have interesting emotions.

These animals even have personalities.

Like humans, pigs also have different personalities. The living conditions of a pig can also affect their mood and their actions, causing them to be optimistic or pessimistic. In fact, an interesting study has concluded that pigs tend to be pessimistic in a bad mood and optimistic in good mood. Similar to humans, pigs also make their decisions and judgments based on personality traits.

Pigs also have memories.

Pigs are also good with memories. In another study, pigs’ memories were tested, and results showed that they are good at remembering where food is stored. Most importantly, they also remembered and had the ability to differentiate and choose locations with more food instead of the ones with less food. This shows that not only do pigs have good memories, but they also can understand the value of different food sites.

Pigs also learn from feelings.

It’s known that being empathetic is a quality of human beings, however, not exclusively. Having empathy means that someone understands and is sensitive toward other beings’ thoughts and feelings. Apparently, pigs also have this ability. When putting them to the test, the results were absolutely surprising.

This concludes that pigs show empathy.

A Dutch research team tested 2 groups of pigs. One group was trained to anticipate something good based on them hearing music and then receiving food. Another group was set to hear the same music, but instead, experienced a stressful situation. Then, the new pigs, who had not experienced any of these situations, were introduced.

The interesting thing is that the new pigs, despite not having experienced the situation the other ones in the groups had, still expressed feelings of “happiness” or “fear,” showing that they were emotionally affected. This shows that pigs are able to empathize with each other and learn behaviors from other pigs. If you were not familiar with the range of feelings and emotions pigs have, chances are you are surprised with how rich these creatures are. Curious, isn’t it?

Now that you’re familiar with the study, how do you feel about pigs? Do you think animals have feelings? What other out-of-the-ordinary animals do you think are also extremely smart or empathetic?