In response to Patrick Kelly's post found here.
The question of animal humiliation is an interesting one. At least in the case of humans it seems that humiliation is some sort of mechanism for social cohesion. Humiliation functions to stop a certain norm or taboo from being disregarded, because the very real pain of humiliation would result as a consequence. Probably one the the reasons the taboo on nudity in our society has been maintained is because of the potential for humiliation.
A pervasive assumption is that animals have no dignity and therefore cannot be shamed or humiliated. This makes some degree of sense considering many animals are not social creatures like humans and thus had no need to evolve a mechanism of shame. I don't think this is true though.
Consider that a cat, unlike a dog, will not learn tricks because it doesn't see treats as a reward great enough for it's effort. Maybe this betrays a sense of dignity being weighed against reward. Also it may be hard for us to detect dignity in other animals because so many of the behaviors we associate with it are cultural or species specific.
Of course I'm just conjecturing, but if animals do have a sense of dignity being impinged upon by their display at zoos and aquariums we can chalk up another negative in the whole affair.
The question of animal humiliation is an interesting one. At least in the case of humans it seems that humiliation is some sort of mechanism for social cohesion. Humiliation functions to stop a certain norm or taboo from being disregarded, because the very real pain of humiliation would result as a consequence. Probably one the the reasons the taboo on nudity in our society has been maintained is because of the potential for humiliation.
A pervasive assumption is that animals have no dignity and therefore cannot be shamed or humiliated. This makes some degree of sense considering many animals are not social creatures like humans and thus had no need to evolve a mechanism of shame. I don't think this is true though.
Consider that a cat, unlike a dog, will not learn tricks because it doesn't see treats as a reward great enough for it's effort. Maybe this betrays a sense of dignity being weighed against reward. Also it may be hard for us to detect dignity in other animals because so many of the behaviors we associate with it are cultural or species specific.
Of course I'm just conjecturing, but if animals do have a sense of dignity being impinged upon by their display at zoos and aquariums we can chalk up another negative in the whole affair.
This is actually quite the interesting topic. I think, in general, I would agree with you. Since there is no reliable way to determine what animal humiliation would look like, it would be difficult to be able to actually determine if a non-human animal has a sense of humiliation.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is likely that a number of animals probably don't experience embarrassment simply because they are not social and would therefore have no use for those feelings; crocodiles don't care about the feelings and thoughts of other crocodiles.
Still, I am wondering about the similarities between humilation/embarrassment and guilt. I am inclined to say that many non-human animals do experience guilt; wolves and dogs come to mind as animals who can feel guilty. It seems that guilt and embarrassment/humiliation function similarly to a similar end. So, it seems, if these two are related, that it's likely that some non-human animals can experience something close to humiliation. However, since guilt and embarrassment are socially learned responses, it seems unlikely that zoos and aquariums would provoke such feelings from non-human animals. Still, it might be the case that more intelligent animals would be able to learn the social cues that would warrant guilt in humans.
I thought you might notice that. In my post I noticed that I began to use guilt, shame, and humiliation as almost the same concept. I wonder how they are linked in human social-psychology, because they often seem to pop up near each other. More specifically, I'm wondering what religious guilt is and how it relates to social cohesion. I've often heard of Catholic guilt and Jewish guilt, and I assume this exists in other religions too, but I've never experienced this purported guilt so I don't know how it functions.
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