Honey bees might have emotions: study

Some animals seem to display emotions and according to recent research scientists have found out that honey bees might have emotions like human beings.

Honeybee response “has more in common with that of vertebrates than previously thought,” wrote Newcastle University researchers Melissa Bateson and Jeri Wright in their bee study, published June 2 in Current Biology.

Betason said that scientists have performed some experiments showing that honey bees too have feelings. Namely, pessimism. Scientists explain that they trained the bees to relate one smell with a something sweet (good thing) and another smell with bitterness (something bad), they also presented a neutral mixture of the two to the bees.

Then, half the bees had their hives shaken to simulate a predator attack, those bees displayed an increased expectation of bad outcomes.

Scientists have found out that their brains conatined different levels of dopamine, serotonin and octopamine, which are three neurotransmitters related to depression. Bateson is now focusing on studying happiness among the bees.