We all have stories of pets or other animals doing things that seem like they could only be the result of thought or emotion. Yet, the idea of animal intelligence has long been dismissed or discounted. Now, a growing number of scientists are trying to rigorously study how animals' minds work, and finding that sometimes our own brains get in the way.
Primatologist Frans de Waal chronicles the history of the scientific community's shifting attitudes toward animal intelligence in his new book, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?The answer, he says, is yes, although it might not seem so from the past century of science on the subject.
de Waal argues that many scientists have been blinded by their own egotistical or theological beliefs, determined to set humans apart and prove human superiority. The practice of attributing human-like thoughts or emotions to animal behaviors, known as anthropomorphism, has gained almost a derogatory connotation.
"With animals as close as apes, I feel anthropomorphism is not as big a problem as people think," says de Waal, citing examples of primates kissing or consoling each other. "If animals are more distant, let's say fish or insects or even birds, we have to be a bit more careful because we may be projecting things on them that are not really there."
On the other hand, de Waal says we also need to be careful we don't go too far in distancing ourselves from other animals. In fact, he's coined his own term - anthropodenial - for steadfastly refusing to see any human parallels in other animals' bahavior.
"I think it's even more harmful than anthropomorphism because it denies the unity of nature that we biologists assume everywhere," says de Waal.
Instead, de Waal argues, we should view the human brain in an evolutionary context, as one variant of the animal mind, just as we view the human hand as one variant of a forelimb. That kind of science, de Waal says, could lead to enhanced understanding of both humans and other animals,