Fear and Fearfulness in Animals
Abstract
Persistence of individual differences in animal behavior in reactions to various environmental challenges could reflect basic divergences in temperament, which might be used to predict details of adaptive response. Although studies have been carried out on fear and anxiety in various species, including laboratory, domestic and wild animals, no consistent definition of fearfulness as a basic trait of temperament has emerged. After a classification of the events that may produce a state of fear, this article describes the great variability in behavior and in physiological patterns generally associated with emotional reactivity. The difficulties of proposing fearfulness--the general capacity to react to a variety of potentially threatening situations--as a valid basic internal variable are then discussed. Although there are many studies showing covariation among the psychobiological responses to different environmental challenges, other studies find no such correlations and raise doubts about the interpretation of fearfulness as a basic personality trait. After a critical assessment of methodologies used in fear and anxiety studies, it is suggested that discrepancies among results are mainly due to the modulation of emotional responses in animals, which depend on numerous genetic and epigenetic factors. It is difficult to compare results obtained by different methods from animals reared under various conditions and with different genetic origins. The concept of fearfulness as an…
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A degree of both predictability of visitor contact and control over visitor contact, by hiding from and avoiding fear-provoking visitor interactions, may have been an effective adaptive response in ameliorating the activation of the HPA axis in the penguins when visitor viewing proximity and behaviour were uncontrolled (i.e., standard zoo conditions).
“A degree of both predictability of visitor contact and control over visitor contact, by hiding from and avoiding fear-provoking visitor interactions, may have been an effective adaptive response in ameliorating the activation of the HPA axis in the penguins when visitor viewing proximity and behaviour were uncontrolled (i.e., standard zoo conditions) [58,59].”
From Effects of Regulating Visitor Viewing Proximity and the Intensity of Visitor Behaviour on Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) Behaviour and Welfare (2019) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Boissy, A.
- Affiliations
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Boissy, Alain
- ORCID
- Boissy, Alain
- Venue
- The Quarterly Review of Biology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1995-06
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 165-191
- ISSN
- 0033-5770 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-7718
- OpenAlex
- W2094052846
- Cited by
- 747
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 31
- FWCI
- 12.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Quarterly Review of Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- fearfulness, fear, anxiety, animal temperament, individual differences, emotional reactivity, personality traits, epigenetic factors, neuroendocrine response, ethology, behavioral genetics, interindividual variability
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anxiety, Behavior, Animal, Emotions, Fear, Neurosecretory Systems
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