Scientists Explore the Possibilities of Self-Controlled Thought or Awareness in Animal Species
From bumblebees rolling wooden balls for fun to crayfish exhibiting traits of anxiety, animal behaviors have some experts concluding that creatures actually possess consciousness.
Philosophers, neuroscientists, conservationists, biologists, and experts from many other fields have weighed in on the discussion over the years, but the signing of the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness in 2012 was seen as a milestone. For the first time, scientists from across the globe put their name to a document claiming the evidence was in—many types of animals have the capacity for some level of self-controlled thought or awareness.
Another landmark occurred in April 2024 with the New York Declaration, when 290 academics, scientists, and philosophers backed claims that there was a “realistic possibility” of conscious experience in all vertebrates and many invertebrates—such as crustaceans and insects.
The potential ramifications of this development are huge and could impact everything from the ethics of how people fish and farm to the scope of legal protections and rights afforded to animals in the future. But despite a growing consensus, scholarly opinions remain divided on the subject.
What Is Consciousness?
One of the biggest challenges in the debate—and the main cause of contention—is establishing what is meant by consciousness in this context.
Philosopher and cognitive scientist Kristin Andrews is one of three academics behind the New York Declaration, along with environmental scientist Jeff Sebo of New York University and philosopher Jonathan Birch of the London School of Economics.
Professor Andrews, who is York Research chair in Animal Minds at York University in Toronto, said the definition in the declaration was very specific.
She told The Earth & I: “Some disagreement arises [in the wider debate] because people mean different things by the word consciousness. In the declaration, we focus on a type of consciousness called sentience—the ability to feel things like pain, pleasure, heat, hunger.”
“In the declaration, we focus on a type of consciousness called sentience—the ability to feel things like pain, pleasure, heat, hunger.”
A Growing Body of Evidence
According to the New York Declaration, there have been several studies in recent years that have lent credence to the notion of animal consciousness.
In a 2020 study, crows were trained to report their visual perceptions using head gestures. In a test carried out in 2021, octopuses were shown to avoid pain and value pain relief. Another study found that cuttlefish remember details of specific past events, including how they experienced them. Another found that bumblebees engaged in play activity. Other studies found crayfish display “anxiety-like” states that could be altered by anti-anxiety drugs.
This growing body of work has led many scientists to reassess their views on the nature and prevalence of animal consciousness. One of the signatories to the New York Declaration was Anindya “Rana” Sinha, a professor of animal behavior and cognition at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in India. Professor Sinha has spent 30 years studying wild bonnet macaques. His early research also focused on the behavioral biology of wasps.
Over the course of his career, he observed what he described as “very complex patterns” of behavioral interaction or communication. These observations convinced him that there was a “certain level” of self-awareness, as well as awareness of the nature of the other individuals.
[Professor Sinha] observed what he called “very complex patterns” of behavioral interaction or communication that convinced him there was a “certain level” of self-awareness, as well as awareness of the nature of the other individuals.
“The complexity of these mechanisms makes me believe that there are definitely certain forms of sentience and awareness in these individuals that we must pay attention to,” Professor Sinha said.
Professor Andrew’s work with dolphins and orangutans led her to conclude that these animals were not only conscious, but that other animals exhibited similar behavior. She pointed to a recent study of olfactory self-recognition in snakes as one such example.
“I had to start seeing other animals the way I was seeing the orangutans and dolphins, and we're finding similarities in behavior and physiology. It supports the conclusion that these other animals are conscious too,” she said.
Degrees of Consciousness
Professor Sinha believes that viewing consciousness as a binary concept of “conscious or not conscious” may not be helpful in the current context. Instead he postulates varying “degrees” of consciousness.
“I think many of the processes that humans and non-humans share in terms of the mental mechanisms that govern their decision making, or interactions with other individuals, are similar.
“I think many of the processes that humans and non-humans share in terms of the mental mechanisms that govern their decision making, or interactions with other individuals, are similar."
“They may, however, differ in not only the complexity of each of these processes but also which of these processes are sometimes used in combination to take a particular decision or for a particular behavioral manifestation to appear.”
Professor Andrews added: “I myself wouldn't talk about human-like inner awareness, because some of the hallmarks of human consciousness include inner speech which is likely unique to humans. What is more interesting to me is what is shared—such as the capacity to feel positive and negative feelings.”
Opinion or Proof?
But the concept of animal consciousness remains divisive. Professor Hakwan Lau, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, has been critical of both the Cambridge and New York Declarations, primarily due to what he sees is yet a lack of definitive scientific evidence.
He told The Earth & I: “It is okay for people to express opinions, but they should not pretend that there is scientific support for their claims when there isn’t.”
He said: “The New York Declaration has been very clear: They are supposed to be talking about consciousness in the sense of having subjective experiences. So ‘if’ insects can consciously feel pain, they are conscious under that definition.
“The trouble is that the evidence they cite tells us little about that. The evidence concerns whether insects can react meaningfully and flexibly to external stimuli. It does not tell us one way or the other whether these reactions are produced based on subjective experiences or not.”
Asked whether he feels animals are conscious, he added: “Personally, I think they probably are—but that’s a matter of opinion and guesses. As a scientist I simply don’t know.
“We have too little evidence either way, especially for non-mammals and non-primates. There are experiments that could be done to further our understanding this, but we simply have not yet done those critical experiments yet.”
“We have too little evidence [of consciousness] either way, especially for non-mammals and non-primates. There are experiments that could be done to further our understanding this, but we simply have not yet done those critical experiments yet.”
Professor Andrews said: “I think it's important to say we have the same type of evidence for human and nonhuman consciousness—philosophical evidence, not scientific evidence.”
She added: “Skepticism about other minds is like skepticism about the external world. Acceptance of other minds is the starting point for scientific psychology, and acceptance of the external world is the starting point for physics. Acceptance of animal minds is a framework that permits research, not a scientific conclusion.”
Ramifications of Animal Consciousness
There appears to be more of a growing consensus towards the notion of animal consciousness, but what implications does that have for society at large? Could it not only lead to ethical concerns but even legal issues further down the line?
Professor Sinha said: “Many of us might believe that once we establish that animals are conscious, our behavior towards them needs to change.
“However, I must also insist that there are perhaps researchers like me who intrinsically believe in the ethics of the right to exist, the right to survive, the right to take decisions of your own accord, which you might want to for all organisms, independently of whether they are conscious or not.”
Professor Andrews said more research was needed to inform how to morally approach the subject but added: “Policymakers should acknowledge animals as sentient beings in the law and not treat them as property. As a society, we need to work out the conflicts of interests that will arise with this recognition.”
But, she said, society should not be “too hasty” to conclude that it knows what the correct ethical course of action is before it understands what matters to different animals.
"If we don't try to see things from the animals' perspective first, we risk the mistake of anthropocentric thinking. Our interests are not all animals' interests. And with more research, we might also discover that what matters to the birds differs radically from what matters to the bees,” she said.
What Does the Future Hold?
Professor Andrews said she hopes two things will change because of the declaration’s signing.
“First, I hope that the declaration will shift the question from ‘Are animals conscious?’ to the question, ‘How are animals conscious?’
“Second, I hope that the declaration will shift our thinking about all the animals around us, including the flies and ants and bees in our gardens, and that our welfare protection policies will be extended to include these invertebrate animals.”
*Mark Smith is a journalist and author from the UK. He has written on subjects ranging from business and technology to world affairs, history, and popular culture for the Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Comments