Recent research has shown that stressed bees tend to make more pessimistic decisions and are less lively.
Researchers from Newcastle University in the UK discovered that bumblebees respond to negative experiences in a way that resembles human emotions.
The findings, which were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicate that when bees are disturbed, they lower their expectations for rewards. This change in their outlook may influence how they approach and pollinate flowers.
High and Low Rewards
In their study, scientists trained bees to associate different colors with positive or negative outcomes.
Specifically, bees learned that one color was linked to a location with a sweet reward while another color signified a place with a significantly lower reward. After learning these associations, they would correctly visit the corresponding locations based on the color displayed.
Following this training, two groups of bees experienced a simulated predatory attack, while a third group was not subjected to any stress.
The results revealed that bees subjected to the attack were much more hesitant to view ambiguous colors as indicating high rewards, leading them to choose lower reward locations more frequently than the control group.
Dr. Vivek Nityananda from Newcastle University stated, “Our research indicates that after experiencing stress, bees exhibit more pessimistic behaviors, suggesting they have diminished expectations for rewards.”
“Emotions are intricate, and in humans, they involve a personal comprehension of feelings. While we may never fully understand if bees experience similar feelings, our findings suggest that their reactions to stress lead them to make pessimistic choices.”
“The best interpretation of their behavior is that they perceive high rewards as less probable, demonstrating characteristics similar to pessimistic individuals.”
This research is crucial as it reveals that stress can affect how bees interact with flowers and pollinate plants, along with their ability to attain high-quality rewards.
Additionally, these results highlight that emotion-like responses may exist in quite diverse species, including insects. In the study, bees were stressed through methods like shaking or being gently trapped by a robotic arm covered with a sponge.
‘Emotion-like’ States
The research was spearheaded by Dr. Olga Procenko at Newcastle University, who is currently a researcher at the University of Birmingham.
She commented, “Our findings indicate that, similar to other animals, including humans, bees might experience emotion-like conditions under stress, as suggested by their notable shift towards pessimism.”
“When confronted with uncertainty, stressed bees, like someone who perceives the glass as ‘half empty,’ are more inclined to foresee negative outcomes.”
“Aside from hinting that emotion-like states may be evolutionarily developed, our study paves the way for new insights into how stress impacts insect cognition and behavior, providing valuable information for understanding their reactions to environmental stressors and guiding conservation strategies.”
Further studies are necessary to determine the specific consequences for flower and plant pollination.
Dr. Nityananda added, “We need to explore how stressed bees assess rewards and whether their emotional-like states exhibit characteristics similar to those found in human emotions.”
“We also intend to investigate the neural mechanisms involved and check if wild bees display similar reactions.”
