New research suggests fish can tell when humans are looking at them – and they don’t like it. A study published in Royal Society Open Science provides evidence that fish may possess a form of “attention attribution,” the ability to recognize where another individual is focused. This means they don’t just sense presence, but understand where attention is directed.
Understanding Attention Attribution
The ability to perceive what another being is paying attention to is well-documented in primates, birds, and domestic animals. The new research aimed to determine if fish possess this same ability. Shun Satoh, lead author of the study from Kyoto University, explains that the key is distinguishing between simply being observed and being focused on.
The Experiment: Emperor Cichlids in Lake Tanganyika
Researchers studied emperor cichlids (Boulengerochromis microlepis ) in Lake Tanganyika, Africa. This species was chosen for its relatively neutral behavior toward humans, reducing the chance of confounding results due to fear or aggression. Divers used underwater cameras to record how parent fish reacted when a diver looked at their eggs or hatchlings, looked away, or looked directly at the parent fish itself. They also tested the reaction when the diver turned their back completely.
The Results: Aggression Increases with Direct Gaze
The findings were clear: parent cichlids exhibited more aggressive behavior towards divers when the diver was staring at the offspring or the parent fish. This suggests they weren’t just reacting to a human presence, but specifically to the direction of attention. The fish weren’t simply alarmed by someone nearby, but by being watched.
What This Means for Fish Cognition
While preliminary, the study suggests that fish aren’t just responding reflexively to visual cues. Gabrielle Davidson, a behavioral ecologist at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the study, notes that animals are often sensitive to eye-like stimuli, but this goes further. The fish seem to track where the diver is looking.
The ability to detect attentional direction could be widespread among fish species, but further research is needed. It’s still unclear if the fish are responding to the gaze itself or other cues associated with it.
“One of the biggest challenges is to know what’s inside the mind of other animals,” Davidson says. “These types of extra conditions and experiments can take us a step forward to revealing the inner understanding of these animals.”
The study marks a step toward understanding the cognitive complexity of fish, challenging the notion that only higher-order animals possess sophisticated awareness. It raises questions about how widespread this ability is in the animal kingdom, and what it means for understanding animal behavior and intelligence.
