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Six 'uniquely' human traits now found in animals

newscientist.com — We like to think we have a truckload of traits found nowhere else in the animal kingdom, but this pick of the New Scientist archive suggests otherwise

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  • str3ama, on 05/24/2008, -3/+23lol, in nature there is nothing that is unique or at least no trait that stays unique to a species for long - unless that trait doesn't prove useful to adapting to the environment in which case that species soon ceases to exist. This myth of traits unique to humans has long been a thinly veiled attempt at rationalizing human dominance over the world, mostly at the hands of religious institutions that want to stress how significant we are in some great plan by some imaginary creator.
  • wonderchemist, on 05/24/2008, -1/+49"A classic study in 1964 found that hungry rhesus monkeys would not take food they had been offered if doing so meant that another monkey received an electric shock. The same is true of rats"

    Humans on the other hand....
    • ElAssoWipo, on 05/24/2008, -2/+31Humans will shock anyone if a figure of authority tells them to do so.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
      • marx2k, on 05/24/2008, -1/+13Hell, most humans will shock anyone if it means they, the shocker (not the hand configuration), get something out of it. ***** you, I've got mine.
      • spatty, on 05/24/2008, -0/+15humans are stupid
      • DestroyFascism, on 05/24/2008, -2/+3I don't believe that!
        If a Scientist or a Scientology priest told me that I would, however...
      • str3ama, on 05/24/2008, -1/+4a lesser known study was Zimbardo's Prison test - where he took a bunch of college kids and put them in a mock jail - half were prisoners, and the other guards. The guards brutalized the prisoners knowing full and well that they received no benefit from doing it and that the prisoners were in fact innocent and just college students like themselves. The abuse (physical, emotional, psychological) became so bad and real in this mock prison, that Zimbardo was forced to shut down the study at the behest of one of his interns/students (who he later on ended up marrying lol).
        • lolcat23, on 05/24/2008, -2/+0thats not a study, its a faulty, small test on school kids. Just the fact that these kids knew each other from before makes this test totally unrelevent.

          But if anything, shows what humans are capable of when they are releaved of consequence.
  • tonicboy, on 05/24/2008, -9/+2What about the uniquely human obsession to come up with silly "Top X" lists? Or maybe that's only endemic to the human subspecies, ***** Diggitus.
  • ericwallace, on 05/24/2008, -6/+1This is absolutely fascinating! I wonder if whale culture will ever become cool for teenagers.
  • m28915, on 05/24/2008, -15/+0sdfsdffds;fjkdsk;lfjsdlkfjsdlfksjdflksdjfskldfjsklfj
  • marx2k, on 05/24/2008, -8/+0This headline makes it sound as though animals are slowly evolving to emulate humans.
    • str3ama, on 05/24/2008, -0/+3their is no emulating humans, the article argues that there is nothing distinctly human..or rather that traits thought to be characteristic of only humans are now disproven.
  • gkiltz, on 05/24/2008, -0/+10I think every dog owner has seen that, while it does not rise to the level of sophistication seen in humans, every dog has personality, and all the same emotions we have, at a simpler level! Yes, it is real, just much more "In the moment" than with humans!
  • lordmetroid, on 05/24/2008, -9/+3Whatever, I will still eat them animals or make use of them in whatever way I see appropriate.
  • spatty, on 05/24/2008, -3/+2the animal uprising is coming! they will takeover the world!

    interesting article!
    • gooberguy, on 05/24/2008, -0/+1to be honest that is (loosely) what i thought.
    • fuzzybeard, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1"Four Legs Good! Two Legs Bad!"

      -Orwell, Animal Farm
  • dstz, on 05/24/2008, -5/+3"Humans will shock anyone if a figure of authority tells them to do so"

    So would other animals... your point?
  • superal1394, on 05/24/2008, -0/+22Cat's will hold a grudge. I can't even tell you how freaky it is when your cat is pissed at you.
  • smugmallet, on 05/24/2008, -9/+0Is trait even the correct term for these behaviors? It seems that the examples offered by the New Scientist as animals exhibiting vaguely similar behaviors are the result of anthropomorphization. This is a uniquely human behavior and a cognitive bias we have to hedge against.

    I am all for treating other animals ethically, but that is because I am ethical and I want them to continue to exist and feel as little pain as possible, not because they are “so like us” and as such need to be treated with the same kind of concern. Our compassion, our use of language, and the societal dialectic are unique and have the benefit of offering us the opportunity to write silly lists of disjointed and irrelevant observations.
    • Melatinini, on 05/25/2008, -0/+0The most 'unique' thing about us is our tendency to consider ourselves anything different from or superior to all the other animals out there.
      • smugmallet, on 05/25/2008, -0/+0I said nothing about superior--that is a subjective judgment that frankly isn't very interesting. What metric would one use to judge superiority anyway--that we brush out teeth--hardly a good ruler.

        That said you can love us or hate us, but we are different and we are powerful. I just don't see many tigers walking around with their heads hung low because of a self esteem disconnect where they think they need to consider the rabbit's culture. Hey look, self loathing is a uniquely human behavior as well.

        You seem to think it arrogant to want our species to continue. And while it's true that this is a value judgment, I still want you up against the wall when the revolution comes as you need to forfeit your human papers.

        When the life of another animal comes up against a human's, sorry I am on our side, but enjoy your salad--just don't arrange the tomatoes so that they look like eyes staring at you, or we will have to start caring about weather vegetation can moon walk or play cards. That's a slippery slope greased by ranch dressing.
        • Melatinini, on 05/25/2008, -0/+0"You seem to think it arrogant to want our species to continue."

          Haha, no. That's a mindset with an evolutionary explanation that goes without saying. I'm pretty sure that the "animals" have the same mindset.

          Sorry for assuming that you consider humans "superior." But by indicating that we have distinct features that set us apart from the rest of Kingdom Animalia (moreso, I mean, than any other species -- because of course each species has its own distinguishing traits. If we were chameleons, we could say that our camouflaging ability marks us as a species different from all others [because yes, other species have the ability to do so, but then we could point to other traits and say, 'well, WE'RE the only ones who can do this AND this!']), you are placing us on a different level, which to me implies superiority.

          Maybe the reason we consider our cognitive processes "different" and "powerful" is BECAUSE we have them. Maybe we've got the cause and the effect backwards. Maybe the chameleon values its adaptive qualities and considers other creatures with similar abilities more "chameleon-like" and thus more advanced. Humans can't change their colors to blend in with their environments, so we would be on a level with the rest of the generic "animals" in the lizard's mind.

          Yes, our cultural/social/emotional sophistication IS what allows us to manipulate the environment. So maybe we are the most "powerful" species, and maybe that's grounds to consider our abilities significant enough to place us on a different level from the rest of the animals. In my opinion, it isn't. But I can see where you're coming from.

          Credit to you, though, for saying "other animals," acknowledging that we are nothing more. I suppose my arguments would be better directed toward someone who considers "human" and "animal" two distinct entities.
        • smugmallet, on 05/26/2008, -0/+0I didn't quite get why I was being dugg down. Now I do, for all the verbose garbage I spewed I still came off as a creationist. That disturbs me and I need a bath.

          I guess then this is my final point...the behaviors exhibited by the animals on the list may be traits (and some of them require too much wishing in the analogy for my taste), but the same things in humans are behaviors that extend from one trait--a highly developed cerebral cortex. Every species is different from one another, and our combined abilities make us the king for now. There is no shame in that, there is nothing to apologize for, nor is it anything to be proud of, no need to strut for what boils down to luck of birth. One could say the same thing for a weed, it is very good at what it does, and that is not only survive but thrive.

          But just as I'm not proud, I'm loyal.

          Take that Koalas and your limited diet and small Goldilocks zone.

          Thanks for taking the time to read my crap and to reply, you're the only one who did.
  • Velnich, on 05/24/2008, -0/+3A simply fascinating read.
  • Tophillious, on 05/24/2008, -0/+6Great read. I thought that the morality trait was the most interesting.
  • history1me, on 05/24/2008, -0/+2That was a great read.
  • Maugrym, on 05/24/2008, -1/+6Things like this make me want to go vegetarian. :(
    • onestrawplz, on 05/24/2008, -0/+5no one is stopping you...
    • xstarsprinklesx, on 05/24/2008, -0/+2Not really sure what's so sad about that..?
  • JMellissa, on 05/24/2008, -0/+4I would like to suggest that these traits have always been there. The change is humans to recognize them.
  • lolcat23, on 05/24/2008, -0/+3The morality part was the most interesting, goes to show that the gap between us and "them" is not so long after all.
  • AgmLauncher, on 05/24/2008, -0/+1Personality is very true. Anyone who has ever owned multiple pets in their lives can tell you that different pets have different personalities.
  • mllawso, on 05/24/2008, -1/+2"But we were created in God's image, so animals can't have these traits!"
    /s
  • bajanmoss, on 05/24/2008, -1/+0all the more reason to experiment on them then claim the '' animal experiments that don’t accurately predict human outcomes''
  • P5ycHo, on 05/25/2008, -0/+2Bull *****.
    These have allways been in animals.
    We've just began seeing these traits.
  • ClayDragon, on 05/25/2008, -0/+5Some things in this article reminded me of my cat and a neighbor's cat from years ago. Those two cats (both males) didn't get along very well. Whenever they were close, they both hissed at or even attacked each other. The neighbor's cat was much older and has been living in our street for years (he was about 15 years old or so); my cat on the other hand was only about one or two years old (we found and adopted him).

    One day, we found out that the neighbor's cat (whose name was "Mistake" by the way) was terminally ill. He had a tumor which was surgically removed some time ago, but it grew back (metastases) and the vet said that since Mistake was quite old and everything, it would be better to euthanize him. In his remaining months, he changed from a lively cat to a cat which mostly stayed indoors, moved at a very slow pace and didn't engage much to the usual cat stuff anymore.

    When one day Mistake was sitting at our neighbor's doorstep and watching the people going by, me and my cat (whose name is "Cicero") passed. Cicero stopped and then slowly walked over to Mistake. Mistake thought my cat would attack or pick on him and jumped up, startled. But Cicero slowly moved towards Mistake who was paralyzed in fear. He sniffed a bit on Mistake and then smeared his head on Mistake's head, like cats do to show affection (e.g. like on humans' legs if they want food). This went on for a few seconds and then Cicero came back to us.

    That was so moving. All the time they hated each other, but when my cat "felt" that the neighbor's cat was about to die, he showed him sympathy. Maybe this was just coincidence or I am interpreting more into it than there is, but nevertheless I think it's a nice story. :)
  • Melatinini, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1You and me, baby, we ain't nothing but mammals...
  • eminiguy, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1Good article. More research should be done on learning how to understand animals better and developing ways to communicate with them. We keep searching for aliens in the sky, yet we have such a vast population of life on Earth that still seems very alien to us.
  • Roofius78, on 11/30/2008, -0/+0http://www.bloggtrafik.net lucky for us it wasnt found
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