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I just got the keys to my new house yesterday, and it came with chickens. I already see they’re much smarter than I ever gave them credit for, and that they may
by tiltowait 3y ago
I just got the keys to my new house yesterday, and it came with chickens. I already see they’re much smarter than I ever gave them credit for, and that they may even have different personalities.
I expect I’ll eat a lot less chicken in the future.
- garof 3y agoThey definitely have different personalities, in my experience. Personalities that will suggest names, even.
- quesera 3y agoYou're about to observe the obvious etymology of several common English terms and phrases. :)
- rqtwteye 3y agoChickens totally have different personalities. Some are shy, some are friendly, some are adventurous, some are timid. And it can change. They aren’t machines.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoThey are not complex enough to have personalities. Being shy or bold are not personalities, but just lowlevel behaviors dictated by the presence or lack of particular genes.
- IncreasePosts 3y agoWhat do you think the minimum complexity would be before an animal can show a personality?
- getwiththeprog 3y agoSomewhere between mosquito and lizard.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoSo, let's define personality. I think this definition[[0] from the APA Dictionary of Psychology makes sense: Personality is any person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive and emotional patterns that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life. Now, let's define 'cognitive'. For that we'll rely on Merriam-Webster. Their definition[1] says: of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering) So, at a minimum I think a being needs to be capable of reasoning to have a personality. The shorter answer is I think a personality can be a combination of innate behavioral traits, but it also has to be things like temperament, likes, dislikes, to some extent skills, and similar things shaped in part by environment. [0] https://dictionary.apa.org/personality https://dictionary.apa.org/personality [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognitive https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognitive
- rqtwteye 3y agoHow do you know chickens aren’t reasoning about things?
- DEADMINCE 3y agoPretty much the same reason I know there isn't a pink teapot orbiting Jupiter. In this case though we have decades of research into chicken cognition and nothing to indicate they have self-awareness or an ability to reason. The simplest answer is not that chickens have personalities, but that some humans anthropomorphize chickens.
- rqtwteye 3y agoI am not anthropomorphizing chickens. I think they live in a different world, have different interests and think about different things than humans.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoThat you are assigning them capabilities that humans have, but research has not indicated chickens do, I would say you are indeed anthropomorphizing chickens. Can you support your stance with research rather than anecdotal observations?
- rqtwteye 3y agoThat’s like old fashioned biology when people thought only humans have consciousness and other animals are just mindless machines.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoThey are clearly not just automata but they are not self-aware either.