US EditionStudy Finds Horses Detect Human Fear From Sweat and Change Behavior
The study shows horses startled more and avoided unfamiliar objects when exposed to human fear odor, revealing chemical communication between species, researchers said.
- On Wednesday, the PLOS One paper found horses detect human fear from odor alone, and exposure to fearful sweat changed horses' behavior during tests.
- Human study participants wore cotton pads in armpits while watching joyful clips and then 20 minutes of Sinister to produce fear sweat for the study by France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment.
- Horses that smelled fear sweat startled more easily, hesitated to approach the experimenter, touched less, and showed higher heart rate and saliva cortisol measures while avoiding novel objects.
- For riders and handlers, the study suggests acknowledging emotional states transmit via chemosignals, while researchers plan future studies on human sensitivity to horse odors and other emotions.
- Using a novel muzzle-and-pad setup, the researchers used cotton pads, frozen to avoid contamination, stapled into custom muzzles and audience horses to show smell is another multisensory input horses use.
14 Articles
14 Articles
The French study: when they experience a stressful situation in human beings they tend to reduce interaction with them
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Study Shows Horses Might Be Able to Smell Human Fear And React to It
A new scientific study suggests that horses may be able to smell fear in humans and that this scent alone is enough to change how the animals behave. Researchers found that horses exposed to the body odor of people who had just watched horror movies became more alert, more easily startled, and showed increased heart rates compared with horses exposed to the scent of people who watched joyful films. The findings add to growing evidence that emoti…
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