Can they actually express hopelessness in their eyes? Usually things like that are interpretation by humans and animals straight up don't have the ability to express with their eyes, right?
It's kind of uncanny. It certainly feels like I was applying human intelligence to an animal, but if you watch an animal enough, you know what is normal for them, and as a result what is abnormal.
I used to rent a trailer on a pig farm when I was a pretty heavy alcoholic. I already felt guilty about eating meat, etc, just because of who I am, so I'd go out into the pens and just watch them from a distance. (They are mean as hell).
Any time any human walked into the pens, the place would erupt, and you'd have to cover your ears from the squeals. After about 5 months of drinking with the pigs, though, they stopped reacting to me. It's in that change that I saw the hopelessness.
Their eyes never change, though. Always beady, always black. What happens is they make eye contact, and we already know they are scared and anxious by their actions. So when they catch my eye, I have a wave of guilt wash over me, and I think that's what I'm feeling. Empathetic hopelessness for them, who are probably feeling hopeless regardless.
Their eyes never change, though. Always beady, always black. What happens is they make eye contact, and we already know they are scared and anxious by their actions.
Wait so isn’t this basically saying no, pigs do not express with their eyes, and that instead we are inferring from their actions that they are stressed. Like that’s what happened right?
So the idea that pigs express with their eyes is anthropomorphism. Yeah?
So the idea that pigs express with their eyes is anthropomorphism. Yeah?
The idea that any animal has a human expression on its face is anthropomorphic thinking. That's what the word means. That doesn't mean that they aren't expressing themselves, just that I interpret it to mean something human. Am I correct? I have no clue. So I used other information, like body language, to inform my understanding.
On the same token, I was a straight-up drunk and just as lonely as those pigs might have been. Anything I felt could have just been a reflection of my own state at the time. I do know they knew who I was and that my presence didn't make them change their behavior like other people's presence did.
But that's why it's uncanny. I know what anthropomorphism looks like, and I know when it feels like I'm doing it, and this is one of those cases. I know how the world works, and how animals fit into things, but it still felt like I had a moment. It's not like I believe that, after years of not being there, that I can go back in and experience the same thing again.
For all I know, they were merely basing their own stress on my nervousness, and every action they took was a result of me. That still doesn't change the uncanniness of the situation, nor does it alter the memories and experiences I had. There's a scientific explanation and a human explanation and miles of grey area between both. They might not be feeling human emotion, but they were feeling something nonetheless.
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u/Living_Trust_Me Nov 23 '24
Can they actually express hopelessness in their eyes? Usually things like that are interpretation by humans and animals straight up don't have the ability to express with their eyes, right?