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A separate 2016 study on bumblebees also demonstrated behaviors that suggest the influence of emotions, displaying what experts call an “optimism bias” in cognitive tests when given a tasty treat beforehand. First, a team of researchers trained bees to distinguish between a blue flower placed on one side of a container and a green one on the other. When the bees encountered the blue flower, they found a reward—a 30% sugar solution. When the bees explored the green flower, they found only plain water. After several trials, the bees learned to associate the blue flower with a sweet snack. (This isn’t that surprising, given that numerous studies show that while bees may have tiny brains, they are intelligent.) Then, the researchers tested the bees on ambiguously colored flowers, like purple, which were intended to be confusing and mysterious. Half of the bees were given a 60% sugar solution prior to the test, while the other half were given nothing. The bees who received the saccharin snack flew faster toward the ambiguous blue-green flower while the bees who were not given anything flew more slowly. In other words, the treated bees were quicker to “optimistically” fly toward strange new flowers and explore whether some sugary goodness was nearby. Moreover, this optimistic behavior was shown to be interrupted when the bees were given drugs that disrupt the reception of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with desire and motivation—this is similar to the effect found in mammals. This finding implies that having a positive brain state appeared to bias the bees’ decision-making (perhaps similar to how we feel devouring a piece of chocolate cake). “We can’t say they experience life in the same way that we do,” Clint J. Perry, one of the study’s co-authors, told Popular Science. “But on a basic level, there’s no reason to believe they can’t feel something. It does feel like something to be a bee or an ant or what-have-you.” Yet another study—this time with fruit flies—found “objective evidence that visual stimuli designed to mimic an overhead predator can induce a persistent and scalable internal state of defensive arousal . . . which can influence their subsequent behavior for minutes after the threat has passed,” according to David Anderson, the lead researcher. “For us, that’s a big step beyond just casually intuiting that a fly fleeing a visual threat must be ‘afraid,’ based on our anthropomorphic assumptions. It suggests that the flies’ response to the threat is richer and more complicated than a robotic-like avoidance reflex.” We’ve already known for some time now that complex social relations exist within insect communities, which complicates the idea that bugs are essentially biological machines that have few of the same mental capacities as larger animals. All in all, evidence suggests that insects are, neurologically, far more than simply a bundle of reflexes built for survival. Admittedly, emotion is tricky to define, as it’s based on subjective experience. It’s hard to say exactly which observable biological processes consist of subjective experiences significant enough to be morally relevant. But there is evidence to suggest that bees, fruit flies, and some other insects (at least) have the biological constitution to experience emotion. The possibility that they have subjective experiences associated with those biological processes can’t be eliminated based on current evidence. So while there may not be definitive proof that at least some insects can suffer—or experience emotions like joy—there is at least reason to believe that they might.

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