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 102 points 1 week ago (13 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 28 points 1 week 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 47 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 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 16 points 1 week ago

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

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

That's cool AF, thanks.

[–] inari@piefed.zip 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 54 points 1 week 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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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 50 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 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 13 points 1 week 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 week 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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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (17 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?!

[–] Soulg@ani.social 9 points 1 week ago (2 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 6 points 1 week ago

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

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

But the fact that they do, just like we do, should be an indication of them feeling pain, so I don't understand why people would assume the opposite. They have made every indication of feeling pain before we knew about nervous systems and all this modern stuff, so I really don't get it.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They do but not like mammals do. Injury occurs, their nervous system responds, but their “brain” does not register it to the same degree it would in animals with more evolved brains. This video is a good example of the processing power of insect “brains”. The mantis is processing “eat” and the pain of being gnawed in half simply can’t over power the drive to eat. There’s not a mammal or bird that would ignore being chewed in half just because it was enjoying a succulent meal. Recognizing that different animals process pain in a way different from others is not license to disregard their pain or lessen the suffering, it’s just acknowledging that different systems process hurting in a different manner.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-P9rlovvbjQ

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[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] eronth@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week 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 8 points 1 week 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?

[–] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Some people don't even believe in evolution, do there it is.

And besides that, some people want to believe their food don't have feelings.

It makes sense all organisms feel some sort of pain because it's related to self preservation, but not all of them have an ability to communicate about the pain. And even less number of them communicate pain in a way we could understand, and even less that we actually care to listen.

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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week 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 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I opened the window and a wasp came in.

Now I'm selling my house.

[–] knexcar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I wish some bugs would go extinct, bed bugs, mosquitos, ticks, maybe yellow jackets. Seems like those populations are strong than ever.

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week 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 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week 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 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Probably the same peotle that burned insects with magnifying glasses

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[–] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would any animated being run away from danger if it didn't feel pain? It should be assumed that animals feel pain. Pain keeps them away from danger, so they survive, and evolve with those pain genes. For plants however, whether they have pain genes or not doesn't matter for their survival so they evolve either way.

[–] TheBlackLounge@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I don't think tending to damage is enough to prove pain.

Microbes detect and move away from danger. Plants detect danger and react to defend themselves. They also redirect resources to heal. Pain isn't necessary for this.

Pain is for learning, so you avoid what caused the pain. Beings that don't learn shouldn't feel pain, it would just be a waste of energy. That'd only happen in evolutionary quirks (ie loss of capacity to learn after gaining pain). Nature is cruel (grasshoppers get their heads eaten during mating) but not just for the sake of it.

And of course, there's humans that have a condition that makes them not feel pain. They still learn self preservation, and they have some reflexes too.

The article makes the comparison with a hurt dog. Dogs remember for life what hurt them. It's very obvious they learn from pain.

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week 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 20 points 1 week 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 6 points 1 week 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.

[–] Areldyb@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week 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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[–] werty@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

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

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

I didn't need a paper for that.

"Hey, Bill! Look! Look at this cricket when I stick its antenna with the hot probe! Look! See what it does? Look, I'll do it again. Doesn't like it, does it? I'll just check it again. Nope! Wow! That reaction was a doozy! Hey, go get Eileen! She'd wanna see this, too! Hey, buddy! Here comes the hot probe ... !"

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