Animals have emotions and personalities - Zoology - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Dec, 2001

Cats, dogs, hyenas, and other animals have personality traits in much the same way humans do, according to Samuel D. Gosling, a University of Texas at Austin psychologist who is working toward developing a new field in animal personality. He believes the biological mechanisms underlying these behavioral traits are similar across species. "The idea that nonhuman animals have unique personalities stems from the evolutionary continuity that exists between humans and other species. Unfortunately, there is no unified body of research on animal personality. Some of the early pioneers of psychology studied personality in animals, and then the subject disappeared. I suspect that psychologists thought it didn't sound very scientific. Scientists have been reluctant to ascribe personality traits, thoughts, and emotions to animals, even though they readily accept that the anatomy and physiology of humans is similar to animals," Gosling points out.

Yet, there is no reason to believe that natural selection shapes only physical traits, Gosling maintains. "[Naturalist Charles] Darwin himself argued that emotions exist in nonhuman animals, and his evolutionary theory suggests that behavioral traits, including personality, can evolve in just the same way as fins, wings, and arms. We should realize that studying the personality of animals could help us understand a lot about human personality."

In studies involving dogs, cats, fish, ferrets, and spotted hyenas, to name a few, Gosling and his colleagues have discovered that certain characteristics of personality--particularly extroversion and emotional stability--are evident in animals as low on the phylogenetic scale as guppies and octopuses. The way these personality characteristics are manifested, however, depends on the species. "Whereas an introverted human will stay at home on a Saturday night or stand alone at a party, an octopus will stay in its den during feeding and attempt to hide itself by changing color."

They also found that certain personality characteristics, such as the conscientiousness vs. impulsiveness factor of personality (deliberation, self-discipline, dutifulness, order), might be evident only in humans and in their closest relatives, chimpanzees. One of the most-interesting facts to emerge from Gosling's research on spotted hyenas is that males are more neurotic, high-strung, fearful, and nervous than females.

The reason, he suggests, is that female hyenas are larger and more dominant than males. "This example suggests that sex differences in personality may be related to the ecological niches occupied by the two sexes in a species, and illustrates how a comparative approach can offer a fresh perspective on the interplay between social and biological factors in personality."