• Question: Why do humans have feeling and can cry when animals don't?

    Asked by frogcakes to Alex, Jools, Lynz, Matt, Rika on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Lyndsey Fox

      Lyndsey Fox answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I don’t think it’s strictly true, animals can become depressed and unhappy just like people. My dogs sulk and cry if I leave them at home to go to the shops, and I had a parrot that became very sad and depressed when it’s mate died.
      I think humans live much more complicated lives so perhaps our emotional state changes more often and dramatically than animals.

    • Photo: Julie Greensmith

      Julie Greensmith answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I like Lyndey’s answer – animals too have emotions. We know less about them than human emotions. This is mostly becuase the study of human emotion often relies on people talking about how they feel. This is much more difficult to do with a cat or a dog.

      Psychologists think that we cry because we release happy chemicals in our brain when we do, and these chemicals can block physical pain or emotional pain. This is why crying is linked to sad emotions. We can cry when we are happy as our emotion system gets a bit overloaded! Its very complicated and we are only beginning to understand emotions!

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