Horses can read human faces

Horses shown pictures of angry humans react with fear, while happy faces don't alarm them.

Horses can read the emotional states of humans from their faces

CBC Radio · Posted: Feb 12, 2016 4:53 PM EST | Last Updated: February 12, 2016

Don't be alarmed... (Pete Markham, cc-sa-2.0)

Quirks and Quarks7:20Horses Can Read Human Faces - 2016/02/13 - Pt. 4

The ability of animals to recognize emotion in human facial expression has been debated over the years, mostly because their faces are so different from ours.

But now Amy Smith, a PhD researcher in Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research at the University of Sussex in England, has found that horses can also tell the difference between a happy human face, and an angry one.

When horses were shown photographs of angry human expressions, they exhibited two reactions consistent with fear. One was that their heart rate increased, and the other was that they looked more with their left eye than their right - a response from the right side of the brain where fear is known to be perceived in horses. The happy human expression photo did not result in a negative response.

Horses can read human faces

Horses can read the emotional states of humans from their faces

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