Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it

Positive emotions are getting closer scrutiny after decades of research into negative ones

different animals appearing to experience joy – laughing or smiling. Axolotl, turtle, monkey, horse and dolphin.

A wide array of animals experience happiness, joy and other positive emotions, though it's most likely different from human emotions.

Clockwise from top left: Jurgen & Christine Sohns/imagebroker/getty images; Jon Starling/500px prime/getty images; Andrey Nekrasov/imageBROKER/getty images; ventz/istock/getty images plus; Paul Starosta/stone/getty images; Cyril Ruoso/alamy

This is a human-written story voiced by AI.