• Question: What do you think causes emotion and why do we seem to have emotion and animals don\'t

    Asked by websea to Louise, Michaela, Sian, Steve, Yvette on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well, if I were to be really cold and scientific then I’d say emotions are caused by chemicals being released in the brain that end up making us feel a certain way. I don’t know the ins and out of it, but neuroscience looks in to the physiological basis of things like this. I know that they’ve found that the chemical that makes us feel pleasure is called dopamine, but dopamine also has a role to play in how we move and so forth. It also plays a role in addiction. I guess it’s a very complicated mix of all these different chemicals in the brain affecting different areas of the brain that ultimately make us feel one way, and it’s another set of chemicals and areas of the brain that make us feel another way.

      Animals don’t think and percieve emotions in the same way as well do, they don’t understand the meaning of it as we do – that much is for sure – but some argue that some animals are capable of “sadness” or “happiness” – or at least the animal version of those. If you have a dog and you’ve ever told them off for something then you’ll know what I mean. My dog at least LOOKS sad, whether he really is experiencing what we call sadness is another matter.

    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think that a mixture of our senses, our brains and our neurochemistry combine to cause emotion. But im pretty sure animals have emotions. Do you instead mean consciousness? This is a supposedly human trait, but is also open to debate and experiment.

      You may be interested in the following:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_in_animals

    • Photo: Louise Johnson

      Louise Johnson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think other animals do have emotion – chimpanzees seem to mourn dead friends, for example, and most mammals can show anger or fear. But humans probably have more than any others because our lives are so complex.

      Human emotions probably evolved to help us decide what to do – either more quickly than thinking about it, or in combination with thinking. Weirdly, some people have brain injuries that make it difficult for them to feel emotion, and those people find it hard to make even small decisions, like about what to put on a sandwich, because there isn’t a right answer they can work out logically.

    • Photo: Yvette Wilson

      Yvette Wilson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think it might be do do with how humans are social animals and need to communicate their feelings. I think other social mammals also show emotions. I’m sure our dogs used to sulk when they saw that we were going away to school. Also I’ve seen documentarys where elephants get very upset and mourn the death of a family member.

    • Photo: Sian Harding

      Sian Harding answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      You only have to look at a cat to see a complete range of emotions, even embarrasment!

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