Study Discovers Pigs React Emotionally To Music As Humans Do

According to a recent study, pigs react emotionally to music in the same way that people do.

Berardo de Jess Rodrguez, a veterinarian and musician at the University of Antioquia, wrote 16 consonant and dissonant pieces of music.

Consonant music sounds nice and smooth to humans, but dissonant music sounds startling and unsettling.

The study team next tracked and recorded six litters of 10 to 12 young piglets at a university pig farm while they listened to the music through a speaker.

Each piece lasted three to five minutes and was performed in a random order with a three-minute intermission.

The Reaction

Using a technique known as qualitative behavioral evaluation, the pigs’ body language was assessed on 20 emotional characteristics, including “content” and “uneasy” (QBA).

To measure the animal’s mood and emotional state of mind, this approach attentively examines the animal’s posture, behavior, and overall interaction with their environment.

Positive emotions were elicited by consonant music, whereas negative emotions were elicited by discordant music. The pigs’ reactions to various types of music may be seen here.

The Intelligence of Pigs

Maria Camila Ceballos, an animal welfare expert at the University of Calgary and co-author of the new study, says she and her colleagues opted to examine pigs’ emotions because they are highly intelligent and gregarious creatures that suffer from major welfare violations on industrial farms.

Another recent study discovered distinct changes in pig noises in favorable and negative conditions, demonstrating that pigs, like people, feel emotions.

Both of these studies add to the growing body of evidence supporting requests for factory farm welfare to be drastically improved and for the murder of animals who experience emotions like happiness, fear, and stress in the same way humans do.

Source: “Pigs React Emotionally To Music Just Like Humans, Study Finds” by Plant Based News

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