The study showed an interesting discovery about horses.
Horses are able to read human facial expressions and remember the mood of people, according to a study.
These animals also react more positively to those people who have seen earlier laughing while they are very careful with those people they remember as frustrated/angry. Discovery is based on some previous research that suggested that horses can recognize emotions by reading human faces.
Scientists have shown 21 domestic horses photographs of human models showing either angry or happy faces. A few hours later, they were shown to the same person with an "emotionally neutral" face.
Earlier, short-term exposure to photos was enough to generate differences in their responses.
Horses to which they are shown the picture of angry man have longer observed the photograph with his left eye, which normally sends information to the right hemisphere of the brain, where they handle potential threats. Those who had been shown a model of a happy man they looked longer in the photo with a right eye attached to a part of the brain specialized for more positive reactions.
It was noted that the participants did not know which photo was shown to horses, thus avoiding the risk of giving sub- signals.
Scientists say their findings published in Current Biology could be helpful in helping people connect with horses and avoiding aggressive behaviors.
Past research has shown that horses can read human body language, even when they do not know the person.
