Stressed bees make pessimistic choices and may experience emotional states, new research suggests

Stressed bees are much more likely to make pessimistic choices and lack drive in life, new research has found.

Scientists from the University of Newcastle, UK, have discovered that bumblebees react to an adverse event that resembles human emotions.

Results published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B show that bees reduce their reward expectations when agitated, which could impact how they approach and pollinate flowers.

High and low rewards

The researchers trained the bees to decide whether a color signaled something good or bad. The bees learned to identify that different colors were associated with different outcomes, with one color being associated with a sweet reward location and another color indicating a location with a much lower reward. The bees learned the difference and visited the appropriate location when shown each color.

Once the bees learned these associations, two groups experienced a simulated predatory attack and a third group experienced no external stress.

It was found that bees that had experienced the attack were much less likely to interpret ambiguous colors as indicating high rewards, and in response, they visited low-reward locations more than control bees.

Dr Vivek Nityananda, from Newcastle University, said: “Our study shows that bees are more pessimistic after stress, as their behavior suggests they do not expect to receive rewards.

“Emotions are complex states and in humans they involve a subjective understanding of what you feel. We may never know if bees feel something similar. However, what this research can say is “Bees have similar responses when stressed and make pessimistic choices. The best explanation for their behavior is that they expect high rewards and exhibit traits of pessimistic people.”

Scientists say the research is important because it means stress can impact how bees approach flowers and pollinate plants, as well as their ability to access high-quality rewards.

The results also show that we can find emotional-like responses in very different animals, including insects. The bees in the study were stressed by the shaking or being trapped by a robotic arm fitted with a sponge.

“Emotional type” states

Dr Olga Procenko led the research at the University of Newcastle and is now a researcher at the University of Birmingham.

She said: “Our research suggests that, like other animals, including humans, bees can experience emotional states when stressed, as demonstrated by a clear shift towards pessimism. When faced with ambiguity, stressed bees, much like someone who sees the glass as “half empty,” are more likely to expect negative outcomes.

“In addition to suggesting that emotion-like states may be conserved across evolution, our study opens new possibilities for understanding how stress affects insect cognition and behavior, which could provide insight into their responses to environmental challenges and inform conservation efforts.”

More research is needed to understand what the exact implications are for flower and plant pollination.

Dr. Nityananda added: “We need to understand how bees evaluate rewards when stressed and whether these states in bees exhibit other properties that we see in emotions. We also need to study the neural mechanisms involved and see if wild bees show similar responses. “.