Social Cues in Animals
Social Cues in Animals
Social cues are an important aspect of daily life for all humans and come in many different variations such as facial expression and body language. Each of them can be seen in an individual's everyday life. Examples of this can be anywhere from using one’s tone of voice to show anger towards something that is displeasing or nodding one’s head to agree with someone. While social cues are well known to be a significant part of human interaction, they can also be seen in animals as well.
Elephants in Zimbabwe have been tested to see how they would react to social cues when they are given to them by humans. In the following video the african elephants are given an experiment much like the one that was used in class. In this experiment the elephants are shown two buckets. One of the buckets has food in it and the experimenter points to the correct bucket to see if the elephant would follow the social cues in order to choose the correct bucket. The video shows that the elephant is successful in following the social cues in order to choose the correct bucket. The elephant not only showed that it understood social cues in order to complete choice task but it also showed that it was able to understand the social cues of humans as well. This means that although there are big differences in the lifestyles of humans and elephants, we are still able to understand each other to some degree.
Another study aimed to test the effect of social cues on vervet monkeys. In this experiment being conducted there where to containers of corn, both of which were different colors. Two monkeys were trained to eat specifically from only one of the containers of corn. Later new groups arrived and had to choose which container to eat out of. The new monkeys which consisted of babies and male adults upon arrival chose to eat from the container that the first two monkeys were conditioned to eat from. This shows that like humans social cues play a big part in the daily life.
Both of these studies have displayed that social cues plays a significant role in the daily life of animals and humans alike.The vervet monkeys were seen using social cues to determine which food source to eat out of. The effectiveness of this social cue could have been due to a survival instinct in that if two of the monkeys are safely eating from the one container than it would most likely be okay for them to eat from it too. While the monkeys displayed how social cues are read and interpreted among themselves, the elephants were able to display their understanding of human social cues. By displaying their understanding of human social cues animals were able to show that social cues aren't just specific to one species. Social cues may be different among different scenarios or they might be different in the way they are presented by animals and humans, but humans are still able to understand animals social cues to a certain extent. The fact that animals are able to understand human social cues and likewise shows that we aren't as superior to animals as many individuals think, in fact there might be more similarities than most people realize.
References
“BBC News Human Gestures Understood by Elephants.” Www.youtube.com, BBC News,
Waal, Erica Van. “Humans Are Not the Only Copycats.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 25
Apr. 2013,www.nature.com/news/humans-are-not-the-only-copycats-1.12873?nc=1367282297528.
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