A Very Important Study Says That Goats Prefer It When You Smile At Them

Sky News- Goats can distinguish between smiling and frowning humans, according to a new study. The research by scientists at Queen Mary University of London provides the first evidence of how goats process human emotional expressions. It implies that it is not just companion animals, such as dogs and horses, that have an ability to perceive facial cues. Published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the study describes how 20 goats interacted with different human facial expressions. Dr Alan McElligott, who led the study, said it has “important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species, because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets”. The study was conducted at the Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent, and involved researchers showing goats unfamiliar grey-scale faces of the same person – one smiling and one frowning. According to the team, the happy faces got greater interactions from the goats, who were more eager to approach and explore the images with their snouts.

Thank god this study was done. We needed it. I’m not even joking. Usually I make fun of studies like this cause I think there’s so many better things they could be doing. Not to get side tracked but one of those things they need to be working on his re-animating Ted Williams’ frozen head. We talked about it one time on Section 10 about a month ago and I haven’t stopping thinking about it since. Re-animate Teddy Ballgame’s head, put his head on a young body donor and see if he can make it in the MLB. It’d be the biggest story in sports history. But instead we have researchers pouring tons of money, time and resources into absolutely pointless stuff like wondering if ants could live in space. It’s patently ridiculous.

I don’t feel that way about this goat smiling study. I’m glad we now know that they like being smiled at. That’s a nice little bit of information to have. Up until this point people have been smiling at goats and not knowing if they acknowledge it or not. We’d toss them a smile and they’d just sit there blankly staring at us. Nobody involved knew what was going on, human or goat. Now? Now we know thanks to this study. Goats are happy when people smile at them and that makes me happy. Goats have become hot in the internet streets the last couple years. Goats have made a lot of people smile. It’s good to know our smiles make them smile. Have a good day.