It has long been debated whether animals can smell fear in humans. Unfortunately, answering this age-old question isn't as simple as pulling Fluffy or Fido aside and asking them what they're sensing. So what does the research say? Can animals actually smell fear? To get to the root of this question, researchers have largely taken human presence out of the equation, as animals such as dogs are known to respond to our expressions and body posture . Instead, investigators have focused on how animals, including horses and dogs, respond to various smells emitted by humans watching happy versus fear-inducing videos. In a horse study, published in 2023 in the journal Scientific Reports , researchers had participants watch clips from a comedy one day and a horror movie the next. After the participants watched each video, the researchers collected sweat samples from the viewers' armpits using cotton pads and asked the participants to report how much joy or fear they felt whil...
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