Document type: podcast from France Culture published on Radio France
Authors: Agatha Liévin-Bazin and Michel Kreutzer
Preview: Traditionally, Western ethologists like to link their ideas to the view of Descartes that animals are machines lacking internal emotions or reflection. Behaviorists have perpetuated this view by focusing solely on stimuli and responses, relegating the emotions and desires to the realm of naive anthropomorphism. Yet, from Darwin to Jane Goodall, a different view has always existed: one that recognizes that animals have genuine emotional lives, not just reflexes.
The reward circuit as a neurobiological marker of desire
In the 1950s, researcher James Olds discovered what is now known as thereward system. He demonstrated that animals are not driven solely by their basic needs. They actively seek out pleasurable situations and avoid others. In short, they have desires. How, then, can we study pleasure? Partly through sound - nearly 50 species, ranging from great apes to dolphins and crows, produce vocalizations similar to human laughter. But also through play. Long interpreted merely as a preparation for adult life, it is now recognized as an end in itself: adult animals play, engage in make-believe, and become bored. Bumblebees roll wooden balls, and crows go sledging. The pleasure of the action is the most important thing, going far beyond any adaptive usefulness.
Non-reproductive hedonistic behaviors: beyond the adaptive paradigm
Darwin had foreshadowedthis view with his theory of sexual selection where the pursuit of pleasure can take precedence over utility. Masturbation is a perfect example. It is observed in many vertebrates, from primates to birds and cetaceans. Female macaques have orgasms, and bonobos have turned pleasure into a social bond that goes beyond mere reproduction. Yet these behaviors have long been ignored or deemed aberrant because they did not fit into the utilitarian framework of reproduction. Recognizing pleasure for pleasure’s sake remains a challenge for some members of the scientific community.
