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Just like humans
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| Science | interplay of genes and the environment | By putting animals with specific | ||
| on [id:54325] . The research may even lead to | personalities (aggressive or passive, for | |||
Just Like HumansBY JESSICA BENNET | predictions about what people will do, | example) into specific situations | ||
| based on their personalities, when they’re | (isolation or a social setting) and testing | |||
| stressed out or frightened. Putting | them, scientists could help determine | |||
| personality testing – already a thriving | how personality traits [id:54327] to disease | |||
| WE NAME THEM, RAISE them, | business - on a firm footing could | and medications. Recent research on | ||
| clothe them and spoil them. | uncover a wealth of knowledge about | stress-related personality disorders like | ||
| We describe them as | where personality comes from. | posttraumatic stress, chronic fatigue and | ||
| manipulative, grumpy, sensitive and | Ivan Pavlov did his famous work with | depression has already begun to rely on | ||
| caring. And they’re not even human – | dogs in the early 1900s, but animalpersonality | animal models, says Jaap Koolhaas, a | ||
| they’re our pets. It’s in our nature | studies then languished for | Netherlands-based behavioral | ||
| to ascribe human characteristics to | decades. Now the field is making a | physiologist. Placing a dominant male rat | ||
| animals even if they don’t really exist. | comeback. In one study of fruit flies, | in a situation of social defeat (perhaps by | ||
| For this reason, in the in- terests of | researchers in the North Carolina State | introducing it in the territory of a | ||
| remaining objective observers of | University genetics department found | stronger rat) will bring on behaviors | ||
| nature, scientists have [id:54323] anthro- | some flies to be consistently more | characteristic of human depression. | ||
| pomorphizing animals. To talk about a | aggressive than others – they made more | The big payoff may come down the | ||
| dog’s having a swagger or a cat’s being | threats and dished out more physical | road, as scientists begin to use animals to | ||
| shy would invite professional sneers. | abuse, going so far as to kick and push | figure out how genes and environment | ||
| In recent years, however, evidence | others (yes, flies can kick). [id:54326], | interact to influence personality. | ||
| has begun to show that animals have | research from the University of Guelph, | Currently, scientists rely on observations | ||
| personalities after all. Chimps, for | in Ontario, looked at differences in | of identical twins brought up in different | ||
| example, can be conscientious: they think | rainbow trout; they found some to be | environments – which doesn’t happen | ||
| before they act, plan and control their | consistently bolder in looking for food | often. Animals, however, can be cloned in | ||
| impulses, says Samuel Gosling, a Texas- | than the others. New research, including | large numbers and brought up in | ||
| based psychologist. [id:54324]. | a paper published last month in the | systematically varied environments. In | ||
| The implications of these findings for | journal Nature, asserts that observations | experiments on monkeys suffering from | ||
| research on human personality are | of more than 60 animal species, from | the animal equivalent of AIDS, sociable | ||
| powerful. Scientists can look to animal | birds to squids to spiders, clearly show | monkeys fared better when they | ||
| studies for insight into humans the same | the presence of what can only be called | interacted more with other monkeys, | ||
| way they now look to animal testing for | personality. | while those [id:54328] – like humans in a | ||
| insight into drugs. Animal research has | Animals have obvious advantages as | hospital – fared worse, says Gosling. | ||
| already begun to shed light on how | test subjects. Humans are difficult to | That’s the kind of effect scientists may | ||
| different types of people respond to | study over an entire lifetime and are | now be able to study more widely. | ||
| medications and treatments – aggressive | more complicated – psychologists must | Perhaps that’s the [id:54329] finding out | ||
| and passive rats respond differently to | take into account a person’s goals, values, | humans aren’t as unique as we’d thought. | ||
| antidepressants, for example. The hope is | abilities and attitudes, as well as physical | |||
| that animals can illuminate the murky | and bodily states, moods and life stories. | Newsweek | ||