this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say

Crickets that received the hot probe “overwhelmingly” directed their attention to the affected antenna – they groomed it more frequently, and tended to it over a longer period of time, he says. “They weren’t just agitated and flustered. They were directing their attention to the actual antennae that was hit with this hot probe.”

Link to the paper

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 74 points 1 month ago (16 children)

Pain is probably one of the original sensations. I doubt you could find any creature on Earth that doesn't feel it. It is extremely useful for staying alive. I bet we will find out plants even feel some form of pain if we haven't already.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's been several studies that say they might, but nothing entirely conclusive. Some say that the smell of freshly cut grass might be the grass screaming in pain and warning the rest.

[–] mech@feddit.org 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

It's not to warn the rest, it's even way cooler.
The smell attracts carnivores, and tells them "Hey there's some tasty herbivores over here" so they take care of the problem. The grass is snitching on the sheep.

Presumably that's why we like the smell of freshly mown grass, too (but such statements are impossible to prove in evolutionary biology).

[–] xep@discuss.online 13 points 1 month ago

I see, that's why sometimes we have to touch grass, so we can high five it for being a bro.

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[–] inari@piefed.zip 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

For plants it wouldn't make much sense since they can't really run away or otherwise stop the pain

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also worth saying that for animals, when someone nibbles off your arm, that's a serious injury which can strongly affect your survival chances. For plants, that's just a regular workday.

Kind of been my hardest lesson in keeping houseplants, too. Seemingly most plants need to be nibbled on (or ya know, get cut back), otherwise they will try to grow towards the sky and hurt themselves in the process.

I've killed two basil plants, because you look away for one second and they just grow half a meter tall. To support the weight, they become woody at the base. And eventually, they can't sustain the leaves at the top anymore, but when you cut them down to the woody part, they can't grow leaves on that anymore, so RIP... 🫠

because you look away for one second and they just grow half a meter tall.

Were they bolting? Bolting occurs when the plant is getting ready to flower, usually in response to high temperatures.

If you see your basil plant beginning to bolt, give it a trim. Otherwise it'll turn bitter. The link provided has more information about when and how to trim it to keep bolting under wraps.

[–] crimson_iris@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago
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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It depends on how you define "creature" and "pain". There's surely some single cell life that doesn't. Are those creatures? Also, for plants, there's growing evidence that many do release chemicals when hurt, which other plants and animals react to. Is that pain? I'd answer yes to both of those, but both are not hard definitions. They can be argued either way.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Over the many decades I've been alive, there have been regular articles saying "scientists discover that such-and-such an animal may feel pain." And then its forgotten and people continue to treat animals terribly, until a couple of years later a similar article comes out. I can't see where the thought would even come from in the first place that these animals wouldn't feel pain, except for religious dogma and a desire to continue abusing animals while telling yourself it's OK. There's no reason to even suspect most animals aren't feeling pain.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Meh, pain is just an indicator. Of course animals feel pain.

For some reason people automatically associate that with how we as humans experience pain and learn from it.

It's not because my car is showing a "check engine" light, that's it's suddenly screaming in agony. It's just signaling to the "brain" something is wrong. How the approach then continues is clearly different between many species and this is what researchers are trying to learn.

Saying animals feel pain is obvious, speaking of "abuse" less so when you stop comparing the "experience" of pain to how we feel it.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago

It and things like it go back forever. I had grad school teachers that say animals don't think. Obviously they do and its not just monkeys and birds and dolphins. Now the thought processes get more basic as you go down but its all there. dreams and such.

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[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I seriously don't understand people's assumption that insects don't feel pain, or people who think bug spray is a painless option to kill. Seeing the bugs squirm for half an hour should probably clue you in. Personally it's my last resort.

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (15 children)

Dude what is this news? Of COURSE insects feel pain? A child can see this clearly, as I did when I was a young'un. They twitch and scurry when injured or burned. Don't ask. Anyway.

Why would they be different from animals and FISH that was apparently news as well, that they feel pain and anxiety when caught and killed. Oh and crayfish and lobster when boiled alive 😂😂😂 why wouldn't they feel pain? It just seems so stupid to me to assume they wouldn't.

Here I thought we already knew this and did it anyway because... We gotta eat, right? Animals kill and eat barely-even-dead prey all the time, it's just nature, right??

But I grew up and learned humans don't think other animals feel pain whatsoever. Like bruh wuuuut???? Whatchu think was going on?!

[–] trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's the same people who argue against plants being living things.

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[–] Soulg@ani.social 4 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I don't know whether they do or not but they have very primitive nervous systems and just responding to bodily trauma or negative stimuli does not inherently imply feeling pain

[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Hopefully an advanced race doesn't put you in a room, break your shit, and say the same thing to each other.

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[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Obviously advanced life forms will feel pain, why did we think otherwise?

[–] eronth@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Weirdly, it seems like "yes" for a large chunk of people. A lot of people seem to think only humans have a large gambit of emotions. Others think it's just mammals. It leads to a weird number of people who seem to think a lot of animals don't really feel anything

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

But, feeling is such an efficient and proven manner of influencing behavior of complex systems. Make it feel hungry, then it looks for food. It’s phenomenal. Why would we assume simpler beings rely on anything different?

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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Also the fact that bug's are silently going extinct and nobody cares to notice, seriously stick your head out the window right now and listen, that is a silent apocalypse my friend.

[–] Ophrys@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago

Yes. It's one of the most likely apocalypse scenarios.

Here's to hope enough manage to evolve fast enough to adapt to the human poisoning of the word. Because that's the only viable path I can see. That humans manage to change fast enough is highly unlikely

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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's tick season, I'm using bug spray...

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I really don't get the idea that people don't think animals or bugs feel pain or distress.

Like if it's got a nervous system I'm sure it has some concept of pain.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Many insects don't have a nervous system. Also, some plants respond to physical damage (albeit very differently than an animal) and they don't have nervous systems, either.

It would also be possible to build a machine that can detect damage to itself and program it for self preservation, but that doesn't intrinsically mean it would feel pain.

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[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

The very idea that others don't feel pain, when they're animals, just like we are is so fucking insane that I just don't can't deal with those people.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Probably the same peotle that burned insects with magnifying glasses

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[–] werty@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

If it bites me I'm killing it, self defense. I don't care about its pain. It doesn't care about mine.

[–] Areldyb@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gotta join the chorus here. I'm not sure why anyone's surprised to find that something with functioning neurons can feel pain. Wild guess, because I'm not a neuroscientist, but that's gotta be one of the very first things they were ever responsible for conveying, right? "Ouch, don't" has pretty universal utility.

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[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I didn't need a paper for that.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Well, since catch and release for insects is failboat, and managing an infestation of anything is a health hazard, bug spray ain't going anywhere, pain or not

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Like mice, you can acknowledge something feels pain and still need to deal with pest type problems related to it (ideally in a targeted and humane manner). But it may affect some other things for the better such as mandatory killing of crustaceans before boiling, acceptable procedures for invertebrate animal research, eliminating use of live insects for fishing bait, etc.

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[–] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

We could modify what's in the spray to reduce the pain while the bugs die. Animal welfare is still quite relevant when you have to kill them.

[–] Zexks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I lovr how there are a half dozen or so "well obviously duh' comments in here each with a half dozen or so replies all stating 'well not so obviously'

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