Chickens Are Way Smarter Than You Think

As far as animal intelligence goes everyone kind of knows that pigs are pretty smart, cows are pretty dumb, and chickens occupy the space between birds and goldfish.

When filmmaker Werner Herzog looked into the eyes of a chicken (presumably before making one dance at the end of his film Stroszek), he famously described "the enormity of their flat brain, the enormity of their stupidity" as "overwhelming."

But chicken meat, skin, and eggs are tasty and cheap. It's estimated that some 8 billion chickens are consumed every year in the US alone; that's more than 90 pounds per person per year. Needless to say, that is not synonymous with pleasant living conditions. But who cares what kind of conditions they live in, they are utterly stupid creatures, right? Wrong.

As deft as Werner Herzog may be at picking up on the subtlety and absurdity of the human condition, he may have missed the mark on the psychology of chickens. But that is not to say that there is no such thing as chicken psychology.

Lori Marino is a Neuroscience and Behavioural Biology researcher at Emory. She recently published a study called "Thinking chickens: a review of cognition, emotion, and behaviour in the domestic chicken" in the journal Animal Cognition.

In it, Marino systematically compiled all existing peer-reviewed publications on chickens and evaluated the scientific literature on categories such as numerical ability, time perception, communication, and personality. Her results were pretty striking and might get you to think twice about the thoughts and feelings of your favourite flightless bird.

MUNCHIES: Are chickens really "dumber" than other animals? Lori Marino: No. I think that chickens get the "short end of the stick" for a combination of reasons. They are not mammals and people like to eat them. In general, people tend to view mammals as more intelligent than birds when that is not the case categorically. And, more importantly, people downplay the intelligence, sensitivity, and awareness of any animal that they eat because it causes too much cognitive dissonance. They aren't really perceived as being anything much more than a food item, a commodity.

Based on your research, what is the biggest misconception about chicken intelligence? I think the biggest misconception is that not only are they unintelligent but that they don't have feelings and thoughts about each other. In my research, I was struck by the evidence for a level of social complexity and emotional sensitivity to others that we normally attribute to mammals.

So they're pretty aware of themselves and others? They very much like to make comparisons between themselves and other chickens and sometimes use these comparisons in ways that can be thought of as "Machiavellian" or strategic. They also learn from each other by observation. And in terms of emotions they show the ability to be affected by the emotions of other chickens and that is the psychological foundation for a simple form of empathy.

The term "chicken psychology" comes back a few times in your article. What does it mean? Psychology is the study of behaviour and mind. When we think of a psychologist we think of someone who works with humans. But all animals have a mind and, therefore, have a psychology and chickens are no exception. I use the term "psychology" very deliberately because it is not only scientifically valid but it acknowledges the fact that chickens do indeed have minds.

There are so many ways that we refer to chickens as "things" that it is important for us to recognise that it is like something to be a chicken. They have minds and each chicken is an individual just as we are. Language is important and can shape our perceptions. That is why chickens are a who and not a what.

Of all the things you could study, why look at the inner world of chickens? My purpose in reviewing the scientific literature was to separate fact from fiction, first of all. I wanted to summarise what the science tells us about who chickens are and where there may be really interesting and compelling areas of potential noninvasive research with them. So, the paper stands on its own as a peer-reviewed scientific review. But, with that said, I believe that science can and should inform our perceptions and behaviour.

Does this call for more humane treatment of chickens? Certainly we should treat all animals more humanely but I think, in terms of chickens, we really need to take a hard look at how we treat them on a systematic global everyday basis. Our treatment of them is based on a false assumption that they do not have rich psychological lives or feelings. That is simply not true and we need to go forth in that knowledge if we really want to claim that we are sensitive and compassionate beings as well.

Wow. Very interesting. Thanks for speaking with us.