Humans Can Identify Chicken Emotions Through Clucks, Study Finds

Findings could lead to AI-based systems for monitoring chicken welfare, with older people proving more adept at emotional identification.

Humans can identify the emotional state of chickens through their clucks with 69% accuracy, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Queensland and the University of Lincoln.
The study involved playing sound clips of chickens in different emotional states to about 200 participants, who were then asked to identify the emotion of the chicken.
Participants' ability to identify the chickens' emotions was not influenced by their previous interaction with chickens, contrary to researchers' expectations.
The findings could potentially be used to develop AI-based systems to monitor vocalizations in chickens, enhancing welfare assessment methods in the commercial chicken production industry.
Older people were found to be better at identifying the chickens' emotions than younger people, and longer calls were often perceived as more negative.